Only Time (Travel) Will Tell
by KayCal
Summary: Marinette and Adrien had always wondered if being a superhero was a family tradition, but they never thought they'd find out the answer. Will the opportunity present itself when a new Ladybug and Chat Noir show up claiming to be victims of a time-traveling akuma?
1. Prologue

PROLOGUE

When Marinette first found her earrings, her Miraculous, she'd been cleaning out some of her grandparent's stuff from the attic space that was to become her bedroom. The box that contained them was old and made of cardboard with some sort of label scrawled on it in Chinese. It contained, among other things, three old jade carvings, a scarf full of holes, some very faded pictures, and the Miraculous. Marinette had thought that they looked out of place with all the antiques, since the silver was not tarnished and the simple stone didn't appear to be valuable. For reasons unknown to her at the time, she kept the earrings, and she wore them every day from that day on.

Tikki had shown up on her 13th birthday. Marinette had already been wearing the earrings for years, never taking them out despite still not seeing any real value in them. When the kwami had informed her that she had chosen Marinette to be a superhero, Marinette had actually laughed at her. Why would anyone pick someone so _average_ to be a hero? But the little sprite had insisted, and so the current incarnation of Ladybug was born.

Since that day, Marinette had often wondered if being Ladybug was a family tradition. The earrings had been with her grandmother's things, after all. Had her grandmother been the previous Ladybug? Or her aunt? It couldn't have been her mother. Surely she would've said something about the earrings if that were the case. Tikki would never confirm nor deny her suspicions. Following the events with the Pharaoh, however, Marinette had almost completely let go of the idea. Her family was Chinese, and as far as Marinette was concerned, she didn't see any reason for a Chinese woman to have been in Ancient Egypt. Right?

* * *

Adrien's mom had left him something before she disappeared. She did not leave him an explanation of where she had gone or why she hadn't taken him, but a simple silver ring and a note that said 'don't tell your father.' Adrien secured the ring on his finger and hid the note where no one, not even the cleaning staff, would find it. He never took the ring off. And why would he? It was the last thing he had from the only person he thought had ever loved him.

Plagg was an unexpected surprise. He showed up on Adrien's 13th birthday, gave a brief introduction, and almost immediately demanded to be fed. Adrien complied, not knowing what else to do, and once the kwami had been fed, Adrien received a proper explanation. He was going to be a superhero. It was everything he'd ever dreamed of.

Adrien understood why his mother had instructed him not to tell his father. The man was controlling enough as it was; certainly, if Adrien had said anything, all his freedom would've been taken away before it'd even began. Plagg had even told him that he needed more space if he was to be Chat Noir. That ultimately led to Adrien convincing his father to allow him to go to public school. At least every second of his day could not be scrutinized then. It was a major victory for Adrien, and he started classes at the collége the very next semester.

He never got over his mother's disappearance, but the fact that he had been left the Miraculous made him feel less like he had been abandoned and more like his mother had left him behind for safety. Whether it was her safety or his, he didn't question, but it did open a whole other can of questions. Was a duty as Chat Noir part of his family's history? Had his _mother_ taken up the role as the unlucky black cat at some point? If she had, it was clear his father wasn't aware. Why else would she tell Adrien to keep it a secret?

* * *

 **A/N: So just a small hint of what this story will be about! I will not be watching the Origin episodes until they air in France, so if any of this is even remotely close to canon it is pure coincidence (but I doubt it will be)**


	2. Don't Panic

CHAPTER 1: Don't Panic.

The weather had finally settled into a pattern of warmth as winter slowly shifted into spring. While not necessarily possessing the tendencies of an actual ladybug, Marinette felt she always had more energy when it wasn't so cold outside. The blooming flowers, higher sun, and lingering smell of past rain all matched her mood perfectly as she practically skipped home from school.

"Tikki, I can't believe I got 18/20 on my physics project!" Marinette did a little twirl as she crossed the street. "My parents are going to be so pleased. It might just make up for the fact that I've been late to class twice this week..."

Akumas had recently been choosing to pop up in the middle of the night, and while they were usually dealt with quickly, it was hard to get up in the morning after finishing a fight only a few hours before. Marinette kept trying to reassure her mother that she wouldn't be late anymore, but both of them knew it was really an empty promise.

Tikki glanced up at her chosen from the open purse. "I'm sure they'll be just as happy as you, Marinette! We do need to work on a better alarm system for you in the morning though. It seems Hawkmoth is choosing to focus on releasing his akumas at night. It's better for the civilians, but not necessarily for you."

Marinette chuckled as they approached the side of the bakery. "I'll be fine. Besides, it's kind of nice making it through a normal school day without anything strange popping up."

Before she could reach the door handle, there was a bright flash of light from the alleyway across the street. Marinette sighed, "I guess I spoke too soon. Stay on standby Tikki, I'm going to go check it out. I'm not going to transform just yet, in case it isn't an akuma." Tikki nodded in agreement.

Marinette crossed the street with a wide berth around the alleyway and pressed herself against the brick façade as she eased her way around the corner. If it was an akuma, she wanted to make sure it was dealt with as quickly as possible. They were too close to her house for the bakery not to be at risk from an attack.

Rounding the corner, Marinette was not met with an akuma like she had thought, but was instead met by a pair of wide blue eyes behind a red and black spotted mask. She'd been seen. Marinette froze.

 _Ladybug. That's Ladybug. But that can't be Ladybug! I'm Ladybug! And Tikki is in my purse! Is it a copycat akuma?_ Her thoughts were racing as the other girl's eyes got increasingly wider.

"Please don't freak out!" the girl yelled. "You're Marinette Dupain-Cheng right?" She raised her hands in a defensive position, a familiar yo-yo clutched in her palm. In that moment, Marinette noticed the leather-clad cat boy standing next to her, his suit and black hair almost completely blending in with the shadows. _Chat Noir._

Marinette wasn't quite sure how, but she could feel an invisible magical aura that told her that this girl was really Ladybug; similar to the way Tikki knew it was really Marinette during the Timebreaker incident. She considered pretending to be a Ladybug fangirl. If people could think that Chloé could be Ladybug, surely it would be believable if Marinette pretended this girl was Ladybu—her. They looked similar enough, Marinette and this stranger, except for the fact that this Ladybug had waist-length dirty-blonde hair and longer ribbons.

She briefly scanned the strange Chat Noir: he had the same unreal green eyes, but his hair was blackish-blue instead of blond. Her eyes flicked back to the girl. "Okay," she finally spoke after a few moments of tense silence. "I promise I won't freak out. But I'm going to need you guys to explain yourselves, because last time I checked, you guys aren't Ladybug and Chat Noir and yet here we are. And how do you know my name?"

"We know you're Ladybug," the girl said as the two strangers visibly relaxed.

"I promise we'll explain everything," the boy assured. "We just can't really do it here. Can we go back to your house first?"

Marinette eyed them skeptically. They certainly didn't look dangerous apart from the fact they had the powers of Paris' famous duo. The girl was roughly the same height as Marinette with a similar slim build. The boy was about a foot taller and much broader than her Chat. He certainly had the look of Chat Noir, and while Marinette couldn't validate his legitimacy the same way she could with Ladybug, she didn't doubt he was the real thing. His baton was clipped to his back, hands still in a defensive position, and his eyes were pleading with her. She could trust them, but she wasn't sure if she was ready to just yet.

"And why exactly should I take you to my house? I can't exactly walk with Ladybug and Chat Noir in the front door. There would be more questions than answers, and if Alya found out? She and all the other journalists in Paris would swarm. I have my own secret to protect, too."

Catching the skeptical look in Marinette's eye, the girl stepped forward again. She clipped the yo-yo she'd been holding to her side. "Obviously we can't go in like this." She gestured between the two in superhero costumes. "But I need you to trust us. I promise you can trust us. We'll de-transform okay? That way there won't be any journalists. Don't worry about our identities, no one will question it. Is that okay?"

Marinette nodded, and the two superheroes glanced at each other with a quick nod before suddenly vanishing in flashes of green and pink light. In their place stood two teenagers in P.E. uniforms from the Collége Françoise-Dupont with oversized windbreakers. Marinette saw a very exhausted looking Tikki and Chat's kwami float into their respective jacket pockets. That was the last confirmation Marinette needed to know that these two were legitimate. "I promise we aren't going to hurt you or anything." The girl said. "Please, just let us explain."

Marinette nodded again, still not quite sure how to vocalize her thoughts. The tense atmosphere of the alley subsided regardless. Not yet ready to start firing questions, Marinette led them back across the street in silence. She decided that they should go through the bakery's front door, just so she could let her mother know that they had guests. Her news about her physics grade had been completely forgotten at that point.

* * *

 **A/N: An 18/20 is almost unheard of in the French grading system (meaning the project was _extremely_ well done). Just a heads up, the next chapter is much longer, and we'll finally get some explanation (and names)!**


	3. Hi, Mom

CHAPTER 2: Hi, Mom.

Sabine greeted them as soon as they stepped in the door. "Hello, Marinette. I hope you had a good day." She walked around the counter to hug her daughter. "And who have you got here?"

Marinette smiled warmly and hugged her mother back. "Oh, these two are new students at school. Since I'm the class president, I offered to show them around Paris and tell them a little more about the school. I thought they might like to try some of our croissants too." Lying flawlessly is one of those talents she unintentionally developed since becoming Ladybug. She felt bad for having to constantly lie, but it was much easier than the truth. Her mother bought the story without question.

"Oh, that's wonderful! Welcome to Paris. I'm sure you guys will enjoy yourselves here." Sabine shook hands with both of the teenagers. If she noticed how tense they were, she didn't mention it. "Where are you guys from?"

The boy answered, "Oh, uh. We're from…Calais?" It came out more as a question than an answer, and he was elbowed by the blonde girl. He shot her an apologetic look.

Sabine continued anyways, "What were your names again?"

Marinette snapped her wandering attention back to them. She had completely forgotten to ask before. Obviously they weren't named Ladybug and Chat Noir. This time, the girl answered, "Oh, I'm Emma and this is my brother Hugo. Sorry if he seems a bit jumpy. We've never been to Paris before, it's a lot to take in."

"Lovely names," Sabine smiled and began ushering the three teenagers toward the entrance to the house. "I understand it takes a while to adjust. Why don't you guys go upstairs with Marinette, and I'll bring some food up later. How does that sound?"

"That sounds amazing, thank you so much Mrs. Dupain-Cheng."

"No problem, go ahead."

Marinette was already on the first step and motioned for the siblings to follow. Not bothering to stop in the living room or on the upper floor, they made their way up to her bedroom in seconds. The teens weren't very discreet about looking around the space as soon as Marinette had pushed up the trapdoor.

There was a half-finished dress on the mannequin in the corner, and the walls were light pink and bare. Marinette internally cheered. She had been working with Adrien on their physics project last week, and she had taken all the posters of said classmate off her walls in preparation. After some thought, she decided they were kind of stalker-ish, and buried them and the schedule in the back of her closet. She had been planning to replace them with designs and other personal pictures today, that is until the red string of fate had other plans.

"Why don't you guys sit on the chaise? I'll sit in the computer chair." Marinette motioned to the plush pink piece of furniture against the wall. When the guests sat down, she tossed her backpack under the desk, jostling the mouse and revealing her computer background of her (as Ladybug) and Chat Noir.

"Nice background," Hugo chuckled. Marinette blushed and quickly brought the desk chair in front of them. She opened the tin of cookies that sat on her desk.

"There's plenty there for your Tikki. I don't know what Chat's kwami eats, so that's the best I can do right now." Marinette signaled to the tin. Both Tikkis, hers and the Emma's, flew to the supply and started eating. They has started a small conversation in a language Marinette didn't understand when a loud sigh came from the pocket of Hugo's jacket. A small black cat flew out and dramatically sighed again.

 _Must be Chat's kwami,_ Marinette thought. It flew right up into her face.

"Cheese, Marinette! I need cheese!" he shook his arms at her. "How dare you deprive me on your world famous cheese bread? You know it's my favorite!"

"Plagg," Tikki groaned. "She doesn't know you like cheese bread. She doesn't even know who you are!"

 _So that's his name._

"Sorry, Plagg." Marinette patted the space between his ears in apology. "I'll try to find you something in a minute, okay? There's some strawberry cheesecake cookies in that tin. It's not cheese, but would those work for the time being?"

"I guess I can let it slide this one time. Don't forget again though. Cheese. Preferably Camembert. Got it?"

She stuck out her finger to shake his paw. "I promise."

With a nod, Plagg joined the two other kwamis in the cookie tin. When Marinette turned her attention back to her guests, she saw that they had matching grins and eyes gleaming with amusement.

"Okay, time to be serious." Marinette said more to herself than to them. "Start explaining. I take it you aren't from here? And I don't mean Paris. Something tells me you aren't from Calais either. Your accents are clearly Parisian."

Emma sighed. "No. We aren't from Calais. We're from Paris, just not _this_ Paris." Marinette nodded so Emma continued. "Let me start from the beginning. Okay, so I'm Emma and Hugo really is my brother, that part wasn't a lie. Well, we're Ladybug and Chat Noir from the future. We were fighting an akuma named Le Sablier and accidentally got hit and suddenly we were here." She smiled when she spoke the last part, "I guess you could say it was pure luck we ended up outside your house."

Marinette snorted at that. "I figured as much. So you said you already knew that I'm currently Ladybug. Care to tell me that story? How far in the future are you guys actually from?"

This time Hugo answered. "How old are you right now?"

"Um, fifteen?"

"Okay," he smiled. "That puts us at coming from twenty-five years in the future." Emma nodded at him in agreement, confirming his mental math. "We just recently became Ladybug and Chat Noir. The heroes had been off the grid for about a decade, but people still caught glimpses here and there. You and Da—I mean the previous Chat Noir—retired officially about a year ago. Tikki and Plagg chose us immediately after that, and you guys passed over the Miraculous to us and well, here we are." He finished his monologue with jazz hands.

Marinette was stunned. She hadn't even considered that she'd still be Ladybug in twenty years, and she had a whole swarm of questions running through her head. Why did she have to personally pass over her Miraculous? She'd always figured that Tikki would leave and just take the earrings with her. Marinette had assumed all Ladybugs just found the earrings in a box like she had. It seemed like a huge risk to reveal her identity to pass on the earrings to Emma, but at least it worked out so that they could recognize her in this situation. What about Chat Noir? How had he gotten his ring? And why did the untransformed ring on Hugo's finger look so familiar?

She finally organized her thoughts well enough to ask another question. "So why the disappearance from the public eye? Were there no akumas for that time?"

The twins glanced at each other, trying to choose their words carefully. They didn't want to give the future away, but that question was really direct. Future Tikki spoke up first.

"It's okay guys, you can tell her."

With Tikki's approval, Emma continued their explanation. "Yes. There weren't any akumas during that time. You and Chat Noir defeated Hawkmoth about 10 years from right now. The man behind the monster was imprisoned, but the source of his power wasn't and unfortunately didn't stay down as long as anyone would've liked. His successor is back to releasing akumas on Paris, but he's just as new as we are so they aren't very dangerous."

Hugo contributed, "When you and Chat gave us your Miraculouses you said, 'I still feel as young as ever, but I'm too old to take down Hawkmoth again.' That's why you guys finally retired."

Marinette laughed at that. "Well I guess that's good to hear. Glad I keep my sense of humor." She absorbed all the information for a moment, leaning back in the desk chair. There was still many questions burning at the back of her mind, but one more than the others.

"So do Chat and I know each other in the future? Outside the masks I mean. As civilians?"

A devilish smile overtook Hugo's face. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

Marinette nodded, ignoring his expression. She figured as much. She and Chat had a lot of close calls related to their identities recently. She doubted at that rate they'd be able to keep up the act for another twenty years.

"Don't worry, everything works out fine." Emma added.

Marinette thought she had enough of her future spoiled for her so far, and it made her hopeful for what was to come, but it was like the odd feeling you get from going to a fortune teller. Except these fortune tellers were sharing facts.

"Okay, so we've covered the basics. I know why you're here and how you know me. So let's figure out what we're going to do about it." The twins both nodded, so she continued. "Obviously you'll need a place to stay until we find this akuma. Feel free to stay here. I'll tell my mom that you guys don't have furniture in your new house yet and would be much more comfortable sleeping here. We'd all be happy to have you. You'll have to come to school with me too. We can register you for classes, or you can just hide out in the library."

"Thank you, Marinette. We really appreciate it." Emma slung her arm around her brother, "just a fair warning, though: this one snores."

"Paw-lease. I don't snore!" Hugo protested. Emma rolled her eyes in a very Ladybug-like reaction.

"First rule of my house," Marinette said with a smirk, "no cat puns."

That seemed to stun the twins. "But you love cat puns!" Hugo whined.

"I don't know about in your time, but I've heard enough cat puns from a certain alley cat to last me a lifetime. I refuse to listen to them in my own home."

With a resigned sigh, Hugo laid back on the chaise. Marinette made out the word 'unbelievable' from his mutterings. Emma patted his head in a fake sense of comfort.

"Okay, little kitty. Don't get too upset." Marinette cooed sarcastically. "We'll get you guys home soon and then you can tell all the cat puns you want. Until then, if we're going to be spending some time together, why don't you tell me about yourselves? You seem to know plenty about me, but what are you guys like outside the masks?"

Hugo sat back up and they both brightened. "Okay! I'll start!" He placed his hand on his chin and looked pensively at the ceiling. "Let's see. I'm Hugo Du-" He started coughing as a way to cover up his mistake. "Sorry, no last names. That's a spoiler. So, let's see. I'm Hugo. I'm fifteen, and I am three minutes older than my sister. I was born on a cold winter's night…"

Emma cut him off with a sigh, "She didn't mean start at the very beginning, dummy! Just let me do it." She pushed him back on the chaise. "We're fifteen and in our last year of collége, and we go to your old school as you can probably tell from the gym uniforms. We were doing a relay race when the akuma attacked."

"Emma that's all the boring stuff! Just give her the basics!"

Emma rolled her eyes at him, but continued. "Fine. I fence after school, and Hugo plays basketball. We do try not to do everything together, but that's pretty hard when you are twins AND a crime-fighting duo. What else…"

"Our dad made us take a foreign language practically from birth too, so in addition to learning English in school we both speak Mandarin Chinese." Hugo added, "It's really funny, our mom is the only one in our family who doesn't speak it. Our grandma even speaks it. Needless to say, we have a lot of inside jokes before. It's hilarious to watch her get annoyed when she doesn't understand what we're saying. Dad tried to teach her, but she's hopeless!"

He was practically rolling on the floor with laughter now. Sure it was a funny story, but Marinette sympathized with their mother. She remembered how frustrating it was when she couldn't understand what Adrien and her uncle were saying during his last visit.

"Oh!" Marinette's thoughts were interrupted by Emma's sudden exclamation. "We both play the violin too. It was mom's idea. She always wanted to play the violin, and I think she was trying to vicariously live that through us. She was upset that our hobbies were the same ones our dad had when he was a kid, so I think it was her revenge."

"I can't blame her, I guess. I always wanted to play the violin too." Marinette sighed wistfully.

A strange look was back in the twins' eyes. Marinette didn't seem to notice; currently, she was too concerned with how they managed to do all those activities on top of their duties as superheroes. She could barely make it to class on time, and her only after school activities were the occasional designing project and working in the bakery. Even her class president duties stayed confined mainly to school hours.

"Hey," Emma said, snapping her out of her concern. She had gotten up from the chaise to kneel next to Marinette and put her hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry about us. Yes, we are extremely busy, but we enjoy it. We aren't pressured into anything and our parents are really understanding. Our dad did a bunch of stuff he didn't really enjoy as a kid, so he said we could stop whenever we wanted, but we truly enjoy it."

Marinette smiled. This girl probably looked up to her as a personal hero, as she was the Ladybug before her. Yet, here she was being comforted by the young girl with bright blue eyes and dirty blonde hair trapped in a time that wasn't her own. She was being silly and she knew it.

"It helps to keep us in top mental and physical condition to be Ladybug and Chat Noir." Hugo chimed. "Tikki and Plagg won't admit it, but I think it was a contributing factor to us being chosen."

The twins were relieved that their reassurance made all the negative emotion leave Marinette's eyes. They thought it was sweet of her to care so much about them despite not really knowing them, but they certainly didn't want her to start worrying about them.

"Speaking of which, did you guys try to keep your identities secret at first?"

They both snorted, but Emma replied first. "Even if we wanted to I don't think we could've if we tried. I'd recognize my annoying twin brother anywhere. So to answer your question, no. We knew each other from the beginning. It was perfect because our dynamic was already in sync."

"Even our parents know. We are completely secret free. Okay maybe not completely since no one else knows, but you get the point." Hugo chuckled. "It's nice not having to sneak in and out of a rooftop hatch or an open window."

Not for the first time that evening, Marinette was surprised. She could possibly imagine telling her parents about her activities as Ladybug. They were pretty understanding people, but that would probably cross the line. They'd probably try to lock her in her room for the rest of her life. She briefly imagined what Chat Noir would say. Probably something along the lines of her being 'his princess locked in her tower.'

"Aren't you worried they'll be used against you? What if they were akumatized? Or kidnapped by an akuma? What if your secret is blown?"

"Woah, Marinette, calm down." Hugo joined his sister by her side. Marinette was shaking, and the twins knew it was her fears for her own parents, not necessarily theirs. "We know the risks. Our parents knew the risks. They can handle themselves. We aren't saying that it would be a good decision to tell your parents, and no one is saying you need to. It's just how things worked out in our situation. I'd explain more if I could."

Tears were pricking at the back of Marinette's eyes. Talking to these new heroes made her feel terrible for keeping her secret from everyone. But they were right, she didn't know the exact circumstances of their situation and everyone is different. She took a deep breath.

"I know." She gave a weak smile at them. "Sorry about that. You guys must think I'm pretty ridiculous."

"We could never," they replied in unison. That made Marinette laugh.

"They might not," Plagg said, deciding to abandon the cookies in favor of their conversation. "But I think you're all pretty ridiculous. Just tell her the good bit already! Stop skirting the real truth, I wanna see her face!"

Everyone except Marinette, who had a confused expression on her face, was glaring at the cat kwami.

"Plagg, I swear you better not. She doesn't need that information." Tikki warned. "You don't know what the effects could be, and it's not necessary for the situation."

"She also didn't need to know that they speak Chinese, Tikki. Let me have my fun." He floated over to Hugo's head and held up a large chunk of hair. The black strands shone blue in the fading sunlight filtering in through the window. "Don't you think these two could be models, Marinette? Of course, their father would probably never allow it…"

"Plagg, don't." Hugo's eyes were wide as he tried to grab the kwami.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, kid. I'm not going to tell her about that part." Plagg flew and landed on Emma's head instead. She was unmoving, just staring wide-eyed and pleading at Tikki to get Plagg to stop. It didn't work.

"It's pretty funny that they know Chinese, too." Plagg continued. "Didn't they mention their heritage? Their grandmother is Chinese. Aren't you half-Chinese, Marinette?"

She nodded. "Uh, yeah?"

Plagg just nodded. "You know, not all Chat Noirs have green eyes. The mask reflects their natural eye color. Remember that. So, if Emma were to be Chat, the eyes would be blue. You know…" He seemed to ponder how to phrase his next statement, "if Hugo had blue eyes, he'd look like he could be your brother."

Marinette just nodded again. She could see how people might think that, their hair was the same color and they had similar heritage, after all. "Yeah, I guess."

"Anyways, speaking of eyes, don't Emma's look familiar to you? Remind you of anyone?"

Marinette was looking at him like he just grown another head. A lot of people had blue eyes. Even _Chloé_ had blue eyes. Why would it remind her of anyone?

Plagg, on the other hand, was starting to get annoyed. No wonder she hadn't been able to figure out who Chat Noir was yet. Just how oblivious was this girl?

He sighed. "Fine, I guess I'll just have to tell you then, seeing as you obviously aren't going to work it out for yourself." Everyone in the room was sitting with baited breath. The twins knew what was coming. That kwami just loved to cause drama, and what could be bigger drama than this?

"Princess," Plagg used the nickname given to her by Chat as he flew right up to her face with a huge smile. "I'm just dying to know, what do you think of Emma and Hugo Dupain-Cheng? Your kids are pretty cute aren't they?"

* * *

 **A/N: Why do they have Marinette's last name? Is it to avoid spoilers, or something else entirely? Stay tuned to find out! (Also, these genetics probably aren't possible, but I study history, not biology, and this is fiction so we're just going to go with it, okay?)**

 **Okay, if we're being honest here, I already have 16k+ words written for this story. I'm trying not to post everything I have all at once, since exam week is right around the corner, but I'm excited to share this. Just don't get use to these quick updates, okay? Maybe I'll start posting chapters once every 3 days. I'm aware this story is a very slow build, but please be patient with me.**


	4. Hey, Dad

CHAPTER 3: Hey, Dad.

"PLAGG!" The twins screamed, snapping out of whatever trance they'd been in. It took Marinette a second to register what the kwami had said, but suddenly it all made sense. She felt the blood run out of her face as she stared at the two with wide eyes.

They had jumped back from Marinette and were staring at her with just as mortified of an expression, waiting to face her reaction.

Tikki, future Tikki that is, was the first one to say anything next. "Plagg you idiot, she didn't need to know that! Who knows how this will change things?"

Plagg was laughing hysterically. "No she didn't _need_ to know, but look at her face! This is almost as good as when she found out her Chat is-" He was cut off by Hugo, who had snatched him out of the air and shoved him forcefully in his jacket pocket. There wasn't any need for the loud-mouth to tell her _everything_.

Marinette was still just staring at the twins. _Her_ twins. Now that she knew, a lot of things made sense. Emma had looked just like her from behind the mask, and anyone would be able to see that her hair was the same color as Hugo's. It also explained why their parents knew about them being superheroes. Their mother was a superhero; in fact, if anyone knew what that duty was like, it was her. There were a lot more questions raised though. Why did they have her last name? Who did she marry? Was she married? The twins talked like their parents were together. How would they meet? Obviously their father knew that she'd been Ladybug and was okay with their children following that path.

She tried not to guess who it might be, but it was hard not to wonder. No one in her family that she knew of had blonde hair, so that must've come from their father's side. Hugo's eyes were bothering her too. They were hauntingly familiar, but she couldn't place them. She knew she had relatives with green eyes, just not quite _those_ green eyes. Sure they had looked exactly like Chat's behind the mask, but that's just because they were green, right? She hadn't even realized until that point that Chat's real eyes must be green too.

The pieces were all there, but Marinette couldn't put it together.

(Or maybe she just didn't want to.)

Eventually, she managed to take a deep breath.

"That actually explains a lot." She finally managed to speak, even if it was fairly weak. "You guys kind of look like me, and I've always liked the names Emma and Hugo."

They didn't say anything right away, but their shoulders relaxed at her reaction.

"We're really sorry," Emma started. "If we knew that Plagg was going to spill the beans we would've just told you from the beginning."

Marinette smiled, "It's okay. At least I know people will believe me at school tomorrow when I tell them you're my cousins, since we actually are related."

Emma smiled, and Hugo cracked a timid grin.

"So you aren't mad? Or disappointed?"

Marinette actually laughed at that. "That even sounds like something I would say!" She continued, "I'm definitely surprised, I mean it's not everyday someone your age says you're their mother, but I'm definitely not disappointed. You guys seem wonderful. Pat on the back to me for awesome parenting skills in the future."

Hugo and Emma ran up and gave her a hug. She returned it, still laughing and trying to banish her lingering questions to just enjoy the moment.

"I'm going to go let my mom know you'll be staying for a little while," she said when they finally broke apart. The twins nodded.

As Marinette was heading to the door to her room, a small alarm went off. She glanced at the clock, 8 PM. They'd been talking for longer than she'd thought. It was already dark.

"Oh!" she exclaimed from the entrance. Her hand was on the door, but she hadn't pushed it open yet. "I forgot to mention. I have patrol tonight. I'm meeting Chat in about an hour. We're going to need his help finding the akuma, so I'll have to tell him about you guys, but I'll leave it up to you to decide if you want to actually come on patrol with me and tell him yourselves." With that, she slipped through the door and down to the living room.

The twins were left standing alone in her room. "What do you think, Hugo? Should we go?"

"It's risky..."

"So was Plagg telling her that she's our mom."

"Yeah, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it."

"Come on! We don't have to tell _him_ about our family. Mom is going to tell him that we're here anyways, and if you're transformed then Plagg can't say anything."

Hugo seemed to ponder that for a second. "Okay, but what if he realizes who we are when we show up at school tomorrow? Even he would be able to put two and two together if new students showed up the day after a new Chat and Ladybug showed up."

"Does it really matter?" Emma rolled her eyes. "We'll just make sure he knows we're not staying at Ladybug's house. He won't even question it if we say we're staying at Marinette's. At this point he's convinced Marinette is some sort of civilian confidant for Ladybug."

"Okay, I guess that will work. If he hasn't figured it out by now, I don't think he ever will." Hugo ran his hand through his hair. "Alya might be a problem though. She already suspects them, and if she manages to link us to that? It'll be all over the Ladyblog. She will definitely know that we are Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"Then I guess we just can't be seen then. Come on, mister 'I live in the shadows' it'll be fine!" Emma was practically bouncing at this point. "I always wanted to see them interact as Ladybug and Chat Noir! Plus we've already seen mom as a teenager, don't you want to see him too?"

Hugo sighed, "I guess." Then a thought occurred to him, and he smirked. "And if we just so happen to be the ones to make our blind parents finally see each other, would it really be a bad thing?"

Emma matched his smirk. "Hey, didn't mom say that they started dating in the year before lycée? Maybe it is fate that we were sent here!"

Just as they were about to start scheming up ways they could subtly drop hints to their teenage parents, Marinette came back up through the door. She was holding a large plate of croissants balanced on top of a stack of spare comforters and towels.

"Well? Did you guys decide?"

"Yeah," Hugo replied. "We'd love to come. Just maybe not mention our relation to you? Chat Noir just needs the basics."

"Of course. Wouldn't want to give him any hints." The twins glanced at each other when she said that. "Well, come on then, I bet you guys want to see this Ladybug in her prime."

With that, the three transformed in three bright flashes al light. Hugo thought it was surreal to see his sister as Ladybug standing next to their mother as Ladybug while they were the same age. If their hair wasn't so drastically different, he wasn't confident he'd actually be able to tell them apart.

Marinette led them on to her balcony after checking that the coast was clear. They began making their way to the Eiffel Tower, two yo-yos crisscrossing in front of one another as Hugo pole-vaulted to keep up. Emma noted that even though some of the shops had changed during their time, Paris had roughly stayed the same. In no time, they were landing on a middle beam of the tower.

Chat Noir was already there, his back to them and blond hair practically glowing in the moonlight. Marinette signaled them to stay back while she went to talk to him first. It'd be better for her to explain the situation before he attacked them thinking they were akumas.

They watched their mother slink up behind Chat and place her hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, kitty." Chat turned to glance up at her, and began standing. Not looking away from her or noticing the two observers, he kissed her knuckles.

"Good evening, My Lady."

Emma walked up closer to Hugo as the other two were talking. "Can you believe she ever doubted he was serious?" She whispered in his hear. Hugo shook his head in response. Anyone with eyes could tell that Chat was completely enamored.

"All quiet?" Marinette asked.

"All quiet on my part, did you see anything on your way here?"

"Kind of… We have a slight problem."

"What, an akuma?"

"Yes and no. Well yes, but not only that."

"What do you mean?"

Ladybug was smirking as she answered, "Well, why don't you just ask Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

Chat was really confused about why Ladybug had just switched to third person, and he knew that confusion was written all over his face.

"Turn around."

He gave Ladybug one last look of skepticism before doing as she said. He turned around to see…Ladybug and Chat Noir?

"Hi there!" Emma said cheerfully.

"Hi," Adrien-Chat replied. "Okay, I'm really confused."

Ladybug, his Ladybug, burst out laughing. " _Oh mon dieu,_ your face! Priceless!" She took a deep breath in attempt to quiet her giggles. "Okay, let me explain. These two," she pointed to the twins, "are Ladybug and Chat Noir from the future. They were caught up with an akuma, which is still here on the loose, and sent here. We need to find that akuma and purify it so they can go home. I bet their mother misses them." She finished with a wink at the twins.

A million thoughts were running through Adrien's head as he took in the information Ladybug had just told him and the appearance of the two in front of him. They looked vaguely familiar, he thought. He couldn't really place where he had seen someone that looked the other Chat before, but he swore that this Ladybug looked exactly like his mother. Except her eyes, of course. They were bright blue, slightly darker than his Ladybug's, but they both had a slight fold to their eyes that made him wonder if they both had some kind of East Asian heritage. "Nice to meet you guys," he finally said.

"It's a purr-leasure to meet you too." Hugo smiled.

"Oh my gosh, you do puns too! Clawsome!" Chat yelled and high-fived his successor.

"Seriously," his Ladybug rolled her eyes, "is it a requirement for Chat Noir to tell bad puns?" The other three laughed.

"You know you love my puns."

"I most certainly do not."

"The other Ladybug laughed."

"I didn't, though."

"Come on, LB. You know puns are the highest form of humor."

"If you say so, _chaton_."

Chat had his arm around her shoulders now, but her arm were crossed as she glared at him. Hugo and Emma were smiling at the exchange. This is what they were used to back home, and it was refreshing to see that their parents had still acted like this after being partners in justice for over twenty-five years.

"Wait," he said, removing his arm from around Ladybug, "Their _mother_? Singular? Are you guys related?"

"Really Chat, that's all you gathered from that story?" His Ladybug replied with a smirk.

The other Ladybug was much more helpful.

"Yes, Chat Noir here is my twin brother."

"Hey Bugaboo, we aren't siblings are we? That would be pretty claw-ful if we were."

She snorted. "No worries, kitty. I'm an only child."

Chat chuckled, but he was secretly screaming on the inside. That's the most personal information he's gotten out of her in almost a year! "Me too," he replied. "Would've been double the shock."

"Hey Ladybug," Emma interjected. She didn't want to interrupt their bantering, but they did have important things to discuss. "Can we talk to Chat Noir alone for a second?"

"Sure. I'll go patrol the area. Meet you guys here in an hour." With that, Marinette winked at Chat and swung away on her yo-yo.

"So, what did you guys want to talk about?" Chat asked once she was gone. A faint blush still covered his cheeks, but he didn't seem to care. He leaned against a beam and motioned for them to explain.

"We just wanted to let you know who we were," Hugo explained.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Chat asked.

"We trust you. The thing is, we'll be at your school tomorrow, and we didn't want you to be surprised or caught off guard when we show up."

That piqued Adrien's interest. Ladybug didn't mention that they knew anything about him.

"How do you guys know where I go to school?"

Emma laughed. "We know a lot more about you than you might think, Adrien."

Adrien was stunned. How did they know who he was? Emma's expression was compassionate and almost loving. No one had looked at Adrien like that in a long time, and it was even more unnerving coming from this girl that looked so much like his mother.

"H-how do you know who I am?" He asked. His cool Chat Noir demeanor was fading fast. It was like they had ripped off his mask here atop of the Eiffel Tower and left him unprotected in the breeze. He felt himself shrinking into his shy alter-ego just from hearing his name, and by the way they were looking at him, he knew they could tell.

"We didn't tell Ladybug, if that's what you're worried about."

It wasn't.

"Look," Emma smiled at him. "We'll give you a brief version of what we told Ladybug. We have to detransform to do that though, and I don't know about you but I really don't want to stand on top of the Eiffel Tower without my Ladybug suit. Can we go somewhere? Just while we talk?"

Adrien nodded, "We can go to my house. It's just across the street, so we'll still be able to meet Ladybug here when she comes back."

"Perfect. Lead the way."

They made their way to the Agreste mansion quickly.

Adrien leaped into his bedroom window, and the twins followed closely behind. They released their transformations, with Tikki and Plagg choosing to sit on their heads rather than float to their jacket pockets. Adrien held on to his transformation.

Of course, the first thing Plagg said was, "hey, kid. Do you have any cheese? That girl never did give me any."

That seemed to snap Adrien back into the situation. He released his transformation and watched as both Plaggs floated down to the kitchen. The only thing that could be heard was a heated discussion about the quality of cheddar cheese.

"I better go keep an eye on them," Tikki said, and she quickly followed.

 _So that's Ladybug's kwami,_ Adrien thought. _She's so cute, just like My Lady._

The three were standing in a very awkward silence.

"Oh, sorry. Why don't you guys sit down?" He pointed to the white couch. The twins did as he said. "So, what's the story?"

"I'm Emma, and this is my twin brother Hugo. As you heard, we are Ladybug and Chat Noir from twenty-five years in the future. We know you, future you, and after Plagg chose Hugo to be Chat Noir when you retired, you personally gave him your ring." She pointed to the now-silver ring sitting on his finger, and Hugo showed that he had the exact same one.

"So do I finally learn who Ladybug is? Twenty five years is a long time." That was the only question among millions swimming in his head that he could get enough of a grasp on to vocalize.

Emma and Hugo seemed to find it hilarious. "We aren't going to tell you obviously, but just know one thing-" Hugo leaned in towards him and smiled mischievously, "-she's closer than you think. You'll find out soon enough."

Adrien's face became wistful at the thought of finally knowing who his Ladybug is. These two seemed to know what they were talking about, and if they say he'll find out soon, who was he to question it? He was happy to wait a little longer.

"That's…great!" he finally said. A thought suddenly occurred to him. "Hey, do you guys have somewhere to stay tonight? Are you staying with Ladybug?"

"No, we are actually staying with one of your classmates."

That seemed strange to Adrien. Why would they get anyone else involved who didn't need to be?

"Who?"

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Ladybug knows her and explained everything to her. She agreed to let us stay at her house and follow her around until we can find the akuma and get back home."

That made sense to Adrien. It was too dangerous for them to stay with him or Ladybug, just in case their secret identities were traced back to them. And besides, Marinette was a really sweet girl, even if she was extremely shy around him. He knew she would easily be able to help them, and he knew from the Evillustrator incident that she had no problem holding her own against akumas if something were to occur. Even if something were to happen, she'd have Ladybug and Chat Noir there to protect her. Adrien smiled.

"That's actually a really good idea. Marinette is really sweet and resourceful. I don't know her all that well, but I trust her."

He leaned back on the couch, "And if you guys need anything, feel free to come here. I'm sure Ladybug told you the same thing."

"She did," Hugo lied. Well, technically she didn't since they were staying with her as Marinette, but Adrien didn't know that. "We're really grateful for all you guys are doing for us, and we'll be sure to thank you again when we get back to our own time."

Adrien laughed. "I'll hold you to that, you know."

Hugo laughed too and nodded. "I believe you."

They sat in silence for a few minutes. The twins were taking in as much of Adrien's room as they could and tried to commit it to memory. Partly for sentiment, partly to tease him about it later. Hugo briefly wondered what had happened to all the books on the mini library on the second floor. Emma looked at the skate ramp with curiosity.

Adrien was staring at Emma. He wasn't even trying to hide it. He couldn't get over how familiar she looked and it bothered him that he couldn't figure out why. Eventually, he gave up with guessing.

"Are we related?" He asked, mostly to Emma.

"Wh-what?" She spluttered. Her face drained of color and her blue eyes grew wide. With that expression, he thought she kind of looked like Marinette. That was the same reaction he got when he tried to talk to her most of the time. Hugo went completely still next to her. "Wh-why would you think that?"

Not trying to assume that their panic was a confirmation, Adrien stayed calm and answered. "You look almost exactly like my mother when she was younger. Except your eyes, they're different. My mom had green eyes." He glanced at Hugo, "And now that I look, your eyes are the same color as mine. So I was just curious. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I wasn't trying to make you uncomfortable."

Hugo was going to kill Plagg for telling him that Adrien was dense. First he went and straight-up told Marinette, and now they were backed into a corner with a direct question from Adrien. The twins shared a look, but figured at this point there was no reason to try and deny it.

Emma sighed, but moved to sit next to him. She placed her hand over his. "You can't tell anyone," she replied. "Not even Ladybug."

"So I take that as a yes?"

She just smiled at him. "Hey, Dad."

* * *

 **A/N: So there we have it, Emma and Hugo's parents are Marinette and Adrien (as if you hadn't already figured out within the first five minutes). Will they figure it out, though? That's the real question.**

 **I can't help but feel that the wording of this chapter is awkward, so if you want to leave any constructive criticism, please go ahead! The next few chapters will have future-knowledge (what do you call a flashback that takes place in the future?) interwoven because I love headcanons. Fair warning, I don't really have a consistent length for the chapters. This one is almost 3500 words, but some much be much longer and some might be closer to 1000.**

 **Also, I discovered a story with a similar akuma name that I have, so I changed mine to "Le Sablier" (French for hourglass) just to avoid confusion!** **Thanks for reading! :)**


	5. Clothes, Cousins, and Cafés

In hindsight, Adrien really should've seen it coming. His mother had directly passed the ring down to him, so it made sense that the next person to receive it would be his own son.

Did Ladybug's Miraculous work the same way? Or did the nature of Plagg's bad luck magic make him a curse on Adrien's family only? More importantly, Adrien had paid attention in health class. He knew these weren't just _his_ kids, they obviously had a mother. Who was she? Did he know her? Did she know that their children are stuck in the past because they are Ladybug and Chat Noir? He'd have to remember this in the future, to reassure her. That is if they haven't already messed up the natural progression of time. Crap.

"Adrien, please say something." Hugo's pleading jerked him from his thoughts. He realized his jaw had dropped and he'd been silence for several minutes. Emma was still sitting next to him, but she looked like she was about to start crying. What had Hugo said? Oh yeah, Adrien still hadn't said anything to them.

"You guys are pretty lucky to have inherited my good looks, eh?" He managed to smile at them. Emma chocked back a happy sob and crushed him in a hug. He tried to return it, but the angle was odd, so he settled for just draping his arm around her back. "I hope my father hasn't tried to make you guys model for him. Unless you wanted to of course."

Emma stiffened, if only slightly. Why did he have to bring up his father? It was an extremely sensitive topic in their household, and no one ever dared to bring up Gabriel Agreste up in the future. Even the twins had to hear everything they knew about their paternal grandfather from Plagg.

They'd known that their dad had a rough childhood, which was enough to make anyone want to avoid their parent, but they hadn't realized that he found out the hard way that his father was _Hawkmoth_ when he was twenty-five.

But, he didn't need to know any of that now, so Emma released him from her vise-like hug and tried to discreetly change the topic. "We aren't models, but I do fence! Maybe I could join you? After school? I'm curious to see who will win since we are evenly matched in experience this time."

Adrien let out a bark of laughter, "Oh, you are so on! Just know, I get a lot of extra practice from being Chat Noir that you don't get being Ladybug."

Hugo, who had spread out on the couch opposite the two, rolled his eyes. "You know, I never told you this in the future, but you are aware that a staff and a fencing foil are completely different right? Your technique doesn't fit the weapon."

"That may be true, but you have to admit that I am a very skilled fighter. Do you use it properly?"

"Of course, my... um…" Hugo couldn't figure out how to phrase his retort in a way that wouldn't really give away much. "Let's just say someone in my life made sure I knew how to use it properly, okay?"

Adrien scoffed. "Well I guess we'll have to have a competition of our own when that akuma pops back up." He paused briefly. "A cat-fight, if you will."

"That should be fun to watch." Emma chuckled. "But, it's getting late and we need to go meet Ladybug. Why don't you just stay here? We'll tell her you went home."

Adrien wasn't very happy about not getting to see his Lady again, but Emma had a point. It was late, and he did have school tomorrow. He saw Tikki and Plagg come back in the room. "Okay, fine. See you guys tomorrow."

The twins transformed and waved goodbye as they jumped out of the window. Adrien was happy, from what he could tell, future him must be a great father. That was an accomplishment considering the model he had to go by. His Plagg came back in the room shortly after they left.

"Oh no," he groaned. "You have a goofy smile on your face. Either Ladybug came here and personally confessed her love for you, or they told you who they are."

Adrien threw a pillow at the kwami. "I don't think they were going to tell me, but I figured it out."

"Of course, you can figure that out but not that—actually I'm just going to stop there. Goodnight, kid."

"Goodnight, Plagg."

* * *

For once in her life, Marinette had woken up for school early. After she had met back up with Emma and Hugo last night, they had headed back to her house and crashed almost immediately, all three exhausted from the events and revelations of the day.

Marinette slid out of bed and quickly got dressed in her usual outfit.

"Shouldn't you wake them?" Tikki asked as Marinette finished her second ponytail.

She was about to reply, but her alarm beat her to it. Emma and Hugo bolted up simultaneously.

"Good morning," Marinette chimed. She shut off the alarm and went to her closet. "So, I don't think you guys are going to want to wear those gym uniforms for the second day in a row, especially since people don't even think you're students at the school yet."

They seemed to still be half asleep, but agreed nonetheless. Marinette pulled some items from her closet.

"Luckily for you, Emma, I have a feeling we are close to the same size." She held out a bundle of clothes for Emma to take. She got out of bed, slid down the ladder, and examined what Marinette had passed her. They knew she made most of her own clothes as a teenager, but since she later switched to doing costume design, Emma didn't really know what to expect from her more casual pieces.

She went to the bathroom to change while Marinette kept digging in her closet. She had given her a pair of simple black jeans, a loose fitting olive t-shirt, and a light wash denim jacket. While it may not have necessarily been fashionable in her own time, it was much better than the gym uniform, and Emma thought she looked good in it. She quickly braided her hair behind her and threw on the slim white trainers she'd been wearing yesterday before going to see if they'd had any luck finding clothes for her brother.

Surprisingly, they had. Apparently Marinette had recently entered a contest that required her to make a pair of men's jeans and (by the luck of Ladybug, she's sure) her model had been the same size as Hugo. Like Emma, he quickly ran off to the bathroom to change and emerged a few minutes later wearing the jeans, a simple white t-shirt, and his running shoes.

"Looking sharp, Hugo."

"Same to you, Emma."

"You both look amazing," Marinette added. She handed them both bags for their kwamis and whatever paperwork they acquired throughout the day.

Since they had to get to school early to register for classes, Sabine handed each of them a small breakfast as they left the bakery.

"Okay, let's get our story straight." Marinette said between bites of a strudel. "You are my cousins, Hugo and Emma Dupain. Close enough to the truth, right? Anyways, you guys are staying with me for a little while your parents are on an extensive business trip, and we'll keep the story that you're from Calais. Sound good?"

"Works for me." Emma shrugged.

"Ditto."

The registration process was easy enough, and Mr. Damocles had no problem believing the whole story. In no time, Marinette had led them into the classroom and introduced them to Ms. Bustier. There was still ten minutes before class when Alya walked in the door.

"Hey, girl! Who do you have here with you?"

"Hey Alya, these are my cousins. Emma and Hugo."

"Twins? You guys look adorable, by the way. I take it Little Miss Fashion Expert got to you?"

Emma laughed. "Yeah, we're twins. And yeah, Marinette picked out our clothes. I think the clothes we had were just a little too sporty for her. Nice to meet you, Alya."

Hugo and Marinette laughed at Emma's little inside-joke. The four of them stood around the front of the room chatting for a few more minutes as more students filtered in. Most of them said hello and introduced themselves, except for Chloé of course. She had instead accused Emma of trying to copy her look and insulted their clothing.

Adrien and Nino were the last two to enter. They had been talking animatedly about some new band Nino had discovered, but stopped when Nino saw the twins.

"Hey, newbies!" he cheered. "I'm Nino." The twins introduced themselves. Adrien waved and introduced himself too, but gave a wink afterword. He asked a few ice breaker questions in attempt to cover the fact that he had met them the night before.

"Hey, Marinette."

"H-hello, Adrien." She attempted to respond, but was looking at her feet and blushing the whole time. Adrien just smiled softly and patted her shoulder as he went to take his seat. It took all the will power the twins possessed not to burst out laughing. Their dad had mentioned that it had taken two years before their mother could talk to him properly, but they hadn't anticipated it being _that_ bad. But it was, so apparently he hadn't been exaggerating. _If only she knew._

Marinette took her seat as well, and the twins retreated to the empty table at the very back of the classroom once the bell rang.

The morning lesson passed in a blur. The twins tried to pay attention, but they were more interested in watching their parents interact with each other and their classmates. Eventually they decided to start passing notes instead.

 _E: I know I said yesterday that he was being obvious, but have you seen her? I don't think she's taken her eyes off him the whole lesson._

 _H: Yeah, I can't wait to tease them about it when we get back_

 _E: Do you think they remember? Our parents, I mean. I can't help but think that this was always supposed to happen._

 _H: You mean like they knew and just hadn't told us?_

 _E: Exactly. Don't you feel like we were almost bred to do our 'job'? Maybe it wasn't as much of a coincidence as we thought._

 _H: You have a good point. I guess we'll just have to ask them later. Or maybe they'll finally tell us once we get back._

* * *

Lunch came quickly enough. Adrien, Marinette, Ayla, and Nino had recently made a habit of eating together at a small café across from the school, and of course they extended that invitation to the twins.

While they were eating, Alya was asking the twins some questions about themselves. When she didn't recognize the name of their favorite bands, she shrugged it off as being some weird indie music. The twins decided to change the subject when they realized that mistake, that band wouldn't form for another twenty years.

"So what do you guys like to do around here?" Hugo asked.

"Personally, all the music venues are my favorite. We have a lot of great bands that come through here." Nino replied.

"Oh there's _tons_ to do in Paris," Alya gushed. "There's tons of museums if you're into that, but we mostly stick to the park by Marinette's and checking out different cafés…"

She was cut off by a loud crash and the sound of screaming. "Oh, right. How could I forget our almost daily akuma attacks?"

Alya and Nino jumped up excitedly and ran towards the noise, with Alya's camera at the ready, to get a new scoop for the Ladyblog.

"You guys stay here," Adrien instructed. "I'm, uh, going to go to the bathroom." With that, he bolted down the street, leaving Marinette and the twins behind.

"He's right, you know. You guys need to stay here so Alya doesn't catch on. Leave this to me and Chat. Make sure Adrien if safe too when he comes back." Marinette told them as she ran off to transform.

"Do you think it's Le Sablier?" Hugo whispered.

"Well, we're going to go find out." Emma started to drag him away towards where Alya and Nino had run off. "We won't interfere, but doesn't mean we have to stay here, come on."

* * *

 **A/N: I'm trying not to post all the chapters I've written all at once, but it's kind of hard to resist. I know this is a very slooooow build, but hey, at least we're done with introductions now! Little more action in the next chapter (just a little) and it was actually one of my favorites to write so far! (Spoiler: you get to see my pathetic attempt at Marichat interactions)**

 **Since Télé-Québec is airing the origins episodes this weekend (and I actually speak French, not Korean), I will be watching. But don't worry, there won't be any spoilers in here!**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	6. Midnight Moments

The akuma was not Le Sablier.

Ladybug and Chat Noir were already on the scene when Emma and Hugo caught up with Nino and Alya. The villain was a disgruntled coffee shop worker who had been akumatized into The Barista. While she didn't look very menacing, just wearing a tight green dress and with dark hair flowing like coffee behind her, she seemed to be proving to be quite difficult. Not only was she spewing coffee all over the streets of Paris, but she was also trapping people under immovable coffee cups.

She shot a cup at Ladybug, who barely managed to dodge out of the way. Unfortunately, Chat Noir wasn't so lucky, and was trapped under her next assault. He broke out of it using his Cataclysm, but now that he had used the power they only had a few minutes before he'd transform back.

Ladybug seemed to have come to the same conclusion, and decided to call on her Lucky Charm.

"Coffee filters?" they heard her ask. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Well while you figure that out," Chat said, "I guess I'll be the distraction."

Emma could practically see the gears turning in Ladybug's head as she looked around for how she was supposed to use the items. Hugo was watching Chat Noir instead. He really needed to learn how to use the staff to his full advantage, instead of trying to use it just as a close-range weapon. His hair almost got singed off by the coffee.

 _Would he let me give him a few pointers?_ Hugo thought.

It was all a blur after that. The coffee filters came in handy for restricting the akuma enough for Chat to grab the nametag off her dress and throw it to Ladybug. She smashed it under her foot and purified it.

"Bye bye, little butterfly." She waved as the now-white creature fluttered away.

" _Bien joué_ ," the chorused as they did their usual fist bump.

"Well My Lady, while it's been fun, I'm almost out of time and I have prior arrangements to get back to, so I guess I'll see you later."

"Same for me, kitty. I'll see you later." With that, Ladybug swung away as Chat dashed on foot.

"Sooo…." Emma and Hugo turned to see Alya and Nino behind them. "What did you think of your first akuma attack? Pretty cool, right?"

Hugo thought someone being emotionally compromised enough to have their mind taken over by a sadistic man in a butterfly mask wasn't "pretty cool" but he wasn't about to argue that here. "Yeah that was great! Ladybug and Chat Noir are awesome!"

Alya smiled, "you know, if you want to catch up on all things Ladybug and Chat Noir, you should check out my blog. Maybe you guys will even help me unmask them!"

Emma and Hugo laughed awkwardly. Like they would ever help to unmask the heroes. Well, the wanted to unmask them to each other, but that was completely different. Alya had turned her attention away from the twins.

"There you two are!" She yelled at Marinette and Adrien as they jogged up to join the group. "Where were you guys?"

"Bathroom." Adrien said.

"I was, uh… also in the bathroom?" Marinette replied, sounding unsure of her own answer. "Th-the girl's bathroom though. Obviously, haha. Not like I was in the boy's bathroom! I would never go in the boy's bathroom! Well, okay except that one time… but that was an accident! Um…."

"Okay…" Alya said. "Well, they just sent out a message that school is cancelled for the rest of the day, so Nino and I were going to go edit this Ladybug footage and extract some stills, wanna come?"

Marinette shook her head, "I think we've had enough superhero excitement today. I thinking about maybe showing Hugo and Emma the arcade?"

"Alright, come on Nino." Alya grabbed his hand as they waved to their friends. "See you later!"

They walked off towards Alya's house as Marinette motioned for the twins to follow her in the direction of the arcade.

Someone tapped on her shoulder. It was Adrien. "Hey, Marinette. Do you, uh, mind if I join you guys? I've never actually been to the arcade."

Before Marinette could even try to stutter out a response, Emma replied for her.

"Of course you can come! Now there's four of us, perfect for team games!"

It was decided, so they made their way towards the arcade. Because of the narrow sidewalk, Adrien and Marinette were forced to walk side-by-side with the twins trailing behind.

"Your cousins are pretty cool, Marinette. It was really nice of you to let them stay with you." Adrien tried to make small talk and subtly thank her at the same time.

"Oh, thanks." Marinette blushed. "I mean I couldn't turn them away, of course. They're my family, so I'm glad to spend time with them."

Adrien smiled at her, but also wondered how she was able to lie so flawlessly. Half the time the girl could barely speak in front of him, yet here she was sounding so convincing that these were her relatives that it seemed like she believed it herself. Maybe there was more to Marinette than he had thought.

* * *

Throughout the day, Marinette had slowly calmed down around Adrien and was actually capable of maintaining a normal conversation.

They played laser tag at the arcade for hours. It was a team activity, and they decided to split it as Hugo and Marinette versus Emma and Adrien. Surprisingly, Hugo and Marinette had won almost every time. Emma tried to argue that their dark hair combined with the dark vests made them harder to see and had given them the advantage, but Marinette just teased her for being a sore loser.

Now, the twins were watching Marinette and Adrien face off in the arcade version of Ultimate Mecha Strike III. Of course, Marinette was destroying him.

"Is there a game here that I can actually beat you in, Marinette?" Adrien chuckled after losing for the third time in a row.

"I doubt it," she replied with a smirk. "But that's only because no one can beat me."

"I've got it!" Adrien shouted as he began to rummage through his school bag (but avoiding disturbing Plagg). The twins shot Marinette matching confused glances, but she shrugged in reply. "Ah ha!" He yelled again as he pulled out a red string with various colored beads. "Give me a rematch, I'll win this time."

Marinette recognized it immediately as the lucky charm she had given him months ago. She had almost forgotten about it. "You kept it?" She asked.

Adrien actually _blushed_. "Uh…yeah. I mean, I kept it because you gave it to me, and it was just so nice of you to do and… Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! You probably want it back, huh?"

Marinette giggled. "No, no! Keep it! Believe me when I say this, I have plenty of luck already." She winked at the twins, who were still behind them watching the whole exchange. "You know, it works better when you tie it around your wrist. Here.." She pointed at his wrist and held out her hand. Adrien passed her the charm and held out his wrist.

She tried to breathe normally as she carefully tied the red string. They were both acutely aware as her fingers brushed the soft skin of his inner wrist, and Marinette came close to losing it right there. She knew she was blushing, and was about to drop her hands when a flash of silver caught her eye.

Adrien's ring.

 _Now where have I seen that before?_

She shook it from her thoughts and released her grasp on the string. She looked up to see Adrien was blushing too.

"Th-there. Now you will have so much luck that it wouldn't even matter if you were a black cat."

Adrien chuckled at her choice of words. _She doesn't know the half of it._

"Thanks, Marinette." He grabbed her hand and placed a small kiss on her knuckles. It was a miracle she managed not to melt onto the floor.

"Um, we're going to go play that dancing game," Hugo said, coughing uncomfortably and interrupting their moment. "Let you two have a minute."

He dragged Emma away, but the moment was broken. Marinette and Adrien fell back into an awkward silence as they played their rematch. Adrien still didn't win, but he was sure he definitely wanted to see more of this side of Marinette in the future.

* * *

That night there was a knock on her rooftop hatch.

"What the-?" Marinette whispered as she went to investigate, careful not to wake the twins. She pushed open the hatch and climbed out on to the balcony, but it was dark and took a minute for her eyes to adjust. The first thing she saw was a pair of glowing green eyes.

"Chat Noir?"

He came closer and bowed. "Good evening, Princess."

"You do realize it's 12:30 in the morning right?"

"Yeah," he replied sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "I just wanted to see you."

Marinette was confused. As far as Chat knew, they had only met twice. Why did he want to see her? By the way he was awkwardly standing there, she knew there must be something on his mind.

"Oh, do you want to sit down?" She motioned to the lounger she kept on her balcony, and went to plug in the fairy lights. At least now she could see him better.

When Marinette plugged the lights in, Adrien was surprised. Sure, he had night vision, but something about seeing Marinette in the soft lighting with her hair down and wearing light pink polka-dotted pajamas almost made him forget why he'd come in the first place.

 _Get it together, Adrien. You love Ladybug._

Marinette sat down across from him.

"So, what's on your mind?" she asked, but the questioning look on would've been enough.

Adrien tried to gather his thoughts and remember that he was supposed to be calm and smooth Chat Noir right now.

"Well, Purrincess." He smirked when she rolled her eyes in response, "I just wanted to stop by and purrsonally thank you for sharing your home with our time travelling furrends."

"Really, Chat?" Her tone wasn't exactly thankful, but teasing. "Three cat puns in one go? Isn't that a bit excessive, even for you?"

He chuckled. "Okay, okay. That may have been a little much, but I still meant what I said. Thank you for taking care of them. It not only helps them, but helps Ladybug and I keep our identities."

 _Little does he know that he's talking to Ladybug right now,_ Marinette thought. She instead replied, "It's an honor to help the heroes of Paris-present and future."

Chat seemed happy with that answer. "You're such a kind person, Marinette." He smiled wider when she looked away, a slight blush covering her cheeks. There was the Marinette he was used to, but he was also enjoying the idea of a full conversation. "Have they told you anything interesting?" _Have they told you who they're really related to?_

"Nothing too specific," she replied. "I asked them what they knew about the akuma that sent them here…" She paused to see if he was still interested in listening. He motioned for her to continue.

"Well, they weren't fighting for very long before they got sent back. Still hadn't used their special attacks or whatever."

"Princess, you make us heroes sound like Pokemon." Chat joked. "Sorry, continue."

She pushed him lightly on the shoulder, but continued. "Anyways, they think what happened was some kid found out that he was adopted, and he didn't take it very well. I think it's terrible that Hawkmoth would take advantage of someone in such serious emotional distress, but we already know that he's the biggest jerk in all of Paris so I'm not _that_ surprised…"

Adrien watched as she slowly got more worked up over the matter. Her eyes darkened and flashed with anger, sadness, and sympathy all at the same time. The wind picked up, causing her hair to blow wildly around her face, and Adrien noticed she was still wearing her earrings. _Aren't those painful to sleep in?_ It was kind of interesting to watch, but it became harder and harder for him to pay attention to the information she was actually giving him rather than just _her_. She was gesticulating wildly with every word she spoke.

"So, Emma and Hugo said they think he has some sort of picture that is holding the akuma. Maybe of his birth parents? They think that he may have been trying to use his power to go back in time and find them. According to Hugo, he wasn't really attacking civilians, which is good, I mean could you imagine being sent back to a time you were unfamiliar with?"

She stood up and was practically pacing the small balcony by that point, but stopped to look at Chat. He shook his head in response to her question.

"Exactly. And what if you weren't lucky like the twins to get sent back where there were people you know? Although, I have a theory based on the nature of the akuma that they were sending people back to meet-"

She stopped halfway through and started coughing to cover her mistake. Luckily she had caught herself before she ranted some important secrets away. She had almost told Chat about her theory that the victims were sent back to meet at least one of their parents, just like the akuma seemed to be trying to do.

"So basically, they had just started fighting him, and Hugo was hit by some sort of light beam, but Emma had grabbed on to him with her yo-yo to try and pull him away. Obviously they were too late, and the next thing they knew they were standing in an alley talking to Ladybug.

Adrien absorbed all the information she had just told him. It made sense, and it wasn't the twins' fault they'd gotten hit with the beam. How many times had he himself been hit with some kind of akuma power in the past few months? He briefly wondered if Hugo was as willing to jump in front of Emma and take the hit as he was for his Ladybug.

He looked back at Marinette. She still seemed riled up, but she had stopped pacing and was now leaning on the railing. He got up and walked behind her, putting both hands on her shoulders and turning her to face him. She looked like she was trying not to cry, but he couldn't tell if it was from anger or sadness. He didn't understand why she seemed so worked up about this. Was there something else that she wasn't telling him?

"What's wrong, Marinette?" He tilted her face up to get her to meet his concerned gaze.

"It's just not fair," she replied, meeting his eyes. There was an intensity there that made him want to look away, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. "They're the same age as me Chat, but here they are, 25 years in the past, trying to find an emotionally distressed monster, and still being forced to hide their powers and go to school like the rest of us."

"They seem to really like you, though." He said, but then backtracked. She didn't know that he had spent half of the day with them. "I mean, they must to be comfortable enough to tell you all that, right?"

She just sighed. "Yeah, I know. But it still isn't fair. What about their parents, Chat?"

Adrien panicked slightly. Had they told her? Surely not, since they had told him not to tell a soul. "Wh-what about their parents?"

Marinette seemed confused at his sudden stutter, but continued without question. "They must be so worried about them! Behind the masks, they're just teenagers." He didn't see where she was going with this, and it must have been obvious by his expression. "How old are you Chat Noir?"

He was caught off guard by her abrupt subject change, and debated if telling her the truth was a good idea. When he looked in her eyes again, however, he knew he couldn't lie to her.

"Fifteen," he replied. "I'm fifteen too."

She nodded, almost like she was expecting his answer already. "So, if you suddenly went missing, don't you think your parents would be worried sick about you? Regardless to whether or not they knew what you were up to as Chat Noir."

He didn't even have to think of his response. He finally broke their eye contact and looked at his feet, not able to quite meet her eye anymore. "No," he mumbled. "I don't think they'd care."

Marinette didn't respond, so he chanced a look at her. To his surprise, she was crying. "Oh, Chat," she said. Suddenly she had pulled him into a hug. After a few seconds, he returned it, burying his face in her shoulder. It took all that he had not to start crying too as she started lightly stroking his hair.

"I'm so sorry," she finally said, still hugging him. "I had no idea. I shouldn't have brought it up. I-"

"It's okay," he said, cutting her off before she could start rambling. She let go of him enough to look him in the eyes, but kept him firmly in her grasp.

"Well, if it means anything, I would care if you suddenly went missing," Marinette said, her eyes full of compassion and determination.

He smiled, albeit a watery one. "Thanks, Princess."

"I mean it, Chat. I care about you, even if your family doesn't. You're welcome here any time." She pulled him back into a proper hug again, and they probably could've stayed like that all night if it weren't for the sharp beep that came from his ring. His transformation was wearing off.

"Looks like that's my cue to leave," he said, not even bothering to hide the sadness in his voice. He really didn't want to go home. Marinette just nodded, releasing him and walking towards the hatch to her bedroom. Chat immediately missed her warmth.

"Goodnight, Chat." She sounded almost as sad as he felt.

"Goodnight, Marinette." He hopped up on her railing and prepared to leave. "Thanks again."

* * *

"Are they still out there?" Hugo whispered from his make-shift bed on the chaise.

"Shh!" Emma replied. "I'm trying to hear what they're saying."

They had been halfway awake when they heard the tapping on the hatch, but had pretended to sleep once Marinette got up to open the door. She'd been out there with Chat Noir for at least half an hour, and Emma had practically pressed herself to the glass in an attempt to hear their conversation.

"Ahh! I think she's coming back!" Emma whisper-yelled and threw herself back down on the bed and pretended to sleep again. She was sharing the bed with Marinette, so she couldn't watch her crawl back into the room without being noticed. Hugo could, though. He noticed the dried tear tracks on her face, but when he saw the huge smile on her face, there was only one thing on his mind.

 _Maybe we won't have to interfere as much as we thought._

* * *

 **A/N: And there was my attempt at both Adrienette and Marichat. I have absolutely no self-restraint when it comes to posting these chapters and even though this one is a bit rushed, I really enjoyed writing it. Sorry for the pathetic akuma battle, I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to write those with a little more action. I promise Le Sablier is actually going to show up at some point (Maybe ;)).**

 **Now that I have this chapter up, however, the next one probably won't be until Friday or Saturday (unless my weak resolve continues).**

 **Thank you to everyone who has left comments! It makes me so happy to see you guys are enjoying reading this as much as I'm enjoying writing it! You're all so kind. Also, some people on AO3 asked for my tumblr username, so I'll leave it here too: It's planetary-um :)**


	7. 10 Years Forward, 15 Years Back

**A/N: Okay so this is a bit of a filler chapter (that I thought would take longer to write). This is the best way I saw to elaborate a bit on the information Emma and Hugo gave regarding their last name and what happened with Hawkmoth. It's set 10 years in Marinette and Adrien's future and like 15 years in Emma and Hugo's past. Enjoy!**

* * *

 _"_ _I'm just dying to know, what do you think of Emma and Hugo Dupain-Cheng? Your kids are pretty cute aren't they?"_

* * *

January had been the best and worst month of Adrien's life.

It started out great. At the age of 25, much earlier than anyone had expected, he had finished his PhD, secured a job as an assistant professor at a local university, and still had time to teach fencing at his old college after school. His life was at its ultimate high point, and there was only one thing left for him to do to make it truly perfect.

He was going to propose to Marinette.

They had been dating, not to anyone's surprise really, for almost _ten years_. Everyone who knew them had been waiting for Adrien to pop the question forever, but he and Marinette had made a promise. They both wanted to finish school and get themselves established in their careers before they decided to finally tie the knot and start a family together.

Now, they had done just what they had promised.

While Adrien had just recently left school, Marinette had been done for years. She had gone to school for fashion design (no one was surprised), and after an internship at a major fashion house, had decided to take a different path than everyone expected. Instead of pursuing the high-fashion world, she decided she felt much more at home doing costume design. Adrien supported her the whole way, knowing it was perfect for her. She had so many talents, and in costume design, she could use them all to her full potential.

And she had. Even at the young age she was, she had already won a few awards for her work on films and theatrical productions that had worked in the city. She wasn't making millions, but it was a comfortable and consistent income, and her name was recognized throughout the fine arts community. She almost single-handedly carried the two of them financially while Adrien was still in school.

That shocked a lot of people. Adrien's family was rich, right? So why was the baker's daughter supporting them both?

Adrien left home (okay, was kicked out) at the age of 18 when he refused to model for his father anymore. That wasn't the only reason for him practically being disowned, but more like the last straw in a series of rebellion that had strained the two to a snapping point. Either way, he had been completely cut off except for a small college savings fund that he had managed to get put in his name before his father could take it away. He and Marinette got a small apartment between their two universities with some of that money, the rest putting him through school, and their lives just kind of fell in to place from there.

* * *

He proposed on the Eiffel Tower in the most botched attempt of avoiding a cliché that anyone had ever witnessed.

His first step in his plan to avoid clichés was to propose to her while they were their superhero alter-egos.

His second step was to find a beam of the Eiffel Tower that overlooked the city in the most wonderful way possible, but where they couldn't be seen by nosy tourists.

His third step was to get down on one knee, pull out the ring he had bought at a local jewelry store (using all of the money he had earned from teaching fencing), and watch as her face lit up before she accepted and he whisked them off into the night. For once, even Plagg hadn't complained about him "misusing his Chat Noir transformation."

He had talked to her parents, consulted with Alya, and had planned the entire night down to the very second. He even spoke to Tikki to make sure that Ladybug went out that night. Marinette was going to love it.

It was going to be perfect.

He dropped the ring. _He_ _dropped the ring._ He dropped the ring, a delicate silver band with a small princess-cut diamond surrounded by even smaller rubies, _off the Eiffel Tower._

Marinette had laughed as he cursed his bad luck to no end. "Oh, kitty," she had managed between giggles, "what am I going to do with you?"

They had detransformed and searched the area below the tower. Adrien thought it was futile, the area was too large and the ring too small, but the luck of Ladybug never ceased to amaze him. Marinette shouted "found it!" after only five minutes of searching.

He jogged over to her as she examined the ring.

"Oh, Adrien. It's beautiful," she had whispered.

He tested his luck again by getting down on one knee. He grabbed her hand not holding the ring and said, "Not as beautiful as you."

She rolled her eyes and he plucked the ring back from her hand, holding her gaze and hoping his eyes conveyed as much love for her as he felt.

"My Lady, I couldn't imagine my life without you and I don't even want to imagine what it would've been if I hadn't met you. You are the kindest, bravest, most beautiful woman I have ever met, and I still can't believe you chose to be with a mangy alley cat like me. We've been partners in justice for so long, it only makes sense that we be partners in life forever."

She had covered her mouth with her hand, tears of happiness beginning to form at the corners of her eyes, and he finally managed to get out what he felt like he'd been waiting his whole life to ask.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, will you marry me?"

She had nodded so fast that he briefly worried she'd give herself whiplash. He smiled wider than he thought possible as she held out her hand for him to slide the ring on. As soon as it was secure (he was _not_ dropping it again), she pulled him up into what was arguably the best kiss he'd ever had.

"I'm so proud of you," she smiled when they broke apart. They kept their hands entwined and their foreheads pressed together.

"And why's that, bugaboo?"

She gave him a peck on the lips before replying, "You made it through that entire speech without making a single cat pun."

He laughed and hugged her tight. "Well, Purrincess, if you missed my claw-some puns so much during my speech, I'll make sure that I'll write plenty fur our meows."

She had pushed him back playfully. "You better not."

"No purr-omises," he winked as he took her hand and lead her into the night.

* * *

Only days after his proposal came the worst day of his life.

Ladybug and Chat Noir knew there was no way that they would be fighting akumas forever, and as they had grown stronger over the years, so had Hawkmoth.

This particular akuma had been the worse one yet. Despite that, Adrien never remembered the akuma's name, or their powers, or what had even happened before he had woken up chained to the floor of a dark room surrounded by dozens of white butterflies.

All he remembered was Marinette _screaming._

It had immediately snapped him out of whatever fog he had been strapped in, and he looked over to see her straining against her own restraints as a figure loomed over her. _Hawkmoth._

The only thing Adrien had felt in that moment was blind fury, but he quickly realized that drawing attention to himself wouldn't be in either of their best interests until he figured out a plan. As far as Hawkmoth knew, he was still unconscious on the floor.

"I've waited for this moment for _twelve years._ " Hawkmoth spat at Ladybug as she tried to kick him and place enough distance between them. "Once I have your Miraculous, Chat Noir won't be able to stop me from getting his."

"You'll never win!" Marinette yelled. "Even if you managed to get my Miraculous, Chat Noir will _destroy_ you!"

Adrien knew what he needed to do. He was still Chat Noir. He still had his Cataclysm. He just had to figure out how to summon it and break out of the chains without Hawkmoth noticing.

Marinette, Ladybug, was still throwing curses as the monster while Adrien wiggled himself around trying to get in position to take this man down once and for all.

Suddenly the screaming stopped, and Adrien snapped his head back in Ladybug's direction.

His blood ran cold.

Hawkmoth had finally managed to grab her. He was _choking_ her as he reached for her earring. Her eyes were starting to bug out of her head and her face was slowly turning blue as she tried to claw his hands away from her neck. Hawkmoth managed to get one of her earrings out, all but tearing through the lobe in the process. Ladybug's transformation fell away, leaving behind Marinette still in the outfit she had worn to work that day.

Hawkmoth actually _laughed_ but at least he released her neck. "Well, Miss Marinette, does your fiancé know that you've been running around with another man every night?"

She was on her hands and knees gasping for breath. Adrien knew he had to act now before Hawkmoth went back for her other earring and got control of Tikki. He didn't even want to know what Hawkmoth would try now that he knew Ladybug's civilian identity. Probably go after her friends and family, just like she had feared all those years ago. Now that the monster knew her identity, this had to end _tonight._ He had summoned his Cataclysm quiet enough while Hawkmoth was laughing to avoid detection. He quickly rusted out the chain and crept silently as a cat around behind Hawkmoth. Just as he was about to rip the butterfly pin right off his suit, Adrien heard Marinette finally gasp out a question.

"How do you know my name?"

Hawkmoth pulled a sinister grin at her, but at least it didn't seem like he was about to attack her again. Chat stopped, waiting for the answer before he attacked. Neither Marinette nor Hawkmoth seemed to notice him standing there.

"Oh my dear, haven't you figured it out by now?" Hawkmoth sneered. "You wanted to work for me at one point."

"I would NEVER work for someone like you." She spat at him.

Adrien got his staff ready to hit Hawkmoth across the head in order to grab his Miraculous.

"Why Marinette," Hawkmoth said as he slowly twirled her earring in his fingers, "Is that any way to talk to your future father-in-law?"

Adrien doesn't really remember what happened next. Marinette later told him that he had sprung out of nowhere to rip the pin off while Hawkmoth had stood there gloating over her.

The process had knocked her earring back to her, and she managed to get it back in her ear so Tikki could come out and release her from the restraints.

When she had looked back, Adrien was there, holding Hawkmoth's Miraculous while Hawkmoth had somehow gotten Chat's ring. It was just Adrien and Gabriel Agreste, glaring at each other with equal looks of revulsion.

"You failed me," Gabriel glared. "I practically bred you to be the _perfect_ akuma, and you had to go and be Chat Noir instead? That explains why my plan never worked. I've never been so disappointed."

Marinette could see Adrien shaking with rage. "You're a _monster._ No wonder mom left."

"How dare you!" Gabriel yelled.

"NO!" Adrien screamed, "How dare YOU? Do you want to know how I got that ring, _father?_ Mom gave it to me! And now I know why she told me not to tell you! You drove her away! And now here you are trying to kill my fiancée? Well you know what I have to say? Have fun rotting in jail you sick bastard." With that, Adrien threw a punch right in Gabriel's face, knocking him unconscious. He dropped Chat Noir's Miraculous in the process, and Tikki flew to pick it up.

Marinette stood in stunned silence through the whole exchange. The room had gone completely silent once Gabriel Agreste had hit the floor until it was broken by Adrien's sobs.

"Oh kitty," Marinette whispered as she pulled him in to a comforting hug. Her throat still hurt from yelling and she was fairly sure her neck was bruised, but he needed her right now. He was shaking uncontrollably as she stroked his hair. "It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known."

He didn't respond, just stared at his father while he continued to cry uncontrollably. Marinette continued to try and comfort him until he finally managed to stand up.

"Why don't you go home?" She said. "Take your ring, go home, take a shower, and I'll meet you there okay? You've been through enough already, I'll take care of this."

Adrien just nodded as he numbly picked up his ring, transformed before Plagg could speak to him, and headed in the direction Marinette hoped their apartment was.

With the help of Tikki, she had transformed into Ladybug, called the police, and broken the butterfly pin.

 _There should be a kwami,_ Tikki had said in her mind.

 _Is that a problem?_ Marinette mentally asked.

 _Even if they got away, you've broken the Miraculous. They shouldn't come back. You guys did it, Marinette. You stopped Hawkmoth._

 _No,_ she thought. _Adrien did._

After that, it hadn't taken long for the police to arrive and cart Gabriel Agreste off to prison. _Good riddance._

Marinette rushed home as quickly as she could, hoping she'd be able to put the pieces of back together for Adrien that his father just shattered.

* * *

Adrien didn't leave their bedroom for a week. Luckily, his job didn't start for another month, so Marinette planned on letting him take all the time he needed.

She was worried, but knew he just had to work through things the best he could on his own. She did her best to be there for him, holding him tight as he cried himself to sleep almost every night. She made sure she made him plenty to eat (sticking mainly to making his favorites) and had him shower daily to try and keep some sense of normality.

For once, she was almost glad he had a strained relationship with his father. If this was what happened when he hadn't even spoken to his father in months, she wasn't sure he would've been able to recover if they had been close. Regardless, she also made sure Adrien didn't see the news on television, but he still had his phone, so she was sure he was still checking the latest stories.

 _Terrorist of Paris Captured._

 _Ladybug and Chat Noir Save the Day for Good._

 _Fashion Mogul Gabriel Agreste Revealed to be Le Papillion._

 _End of the Akumas._

It was all anyone was talking about. The biggest scandal of the past 50 years.

Marinette had dealt with all the lawyers over the phone. Gabriel wasn't likely to get out of jail for a long time, and even if he did he would be put in a psychiatric ward under constant surveillance. Apparently they figured only an insane person could do what Hawkmoth had done. Marinette didn't argue.

They also negotiated his estate. His fashion empire had collapsed in a day, no one wanting to associate with the brand anymore, and Adrien was to get half of the money that remained. The mansion and everything else was to go to the city as compensation "for over a decade of emotional distress of the citizens" and damage to the tourist industry that the constant attacks had caused.

On day eight, Adrien finally left the bedroom. He came out fully dressed, albeit a bit crumpled looking, and grabbed his keys.

"Where are you going?" She asked from where she was sitting on the couch.

"To talk to your parents."

"Why?"

"I need to ask them something."

"Do you want me to come?"

"Do you want to come?"

"It's up to you, Adrien."

"I'm telling them everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything. No more secrets."

He looked like he was preparing for her to argue, to say that it was a bad idea and they should just stay home instead.

"Okay," she said.

"Okay?"

"Yes. We should tell them. I'm coming too."

He nodded and she went to put her shoes on. They walked hand in hand to her parent's bakery. Since Adrien had stopped modeling years ago, very few people still recognized him as the son of the man who had terrorized their city for years, and those that did just sent looks of pity his way.

Her mother was at the counter when they walked into the bakery.

"Oh Marinette! Adrien! It's so lovely to see you two." She walked around the counter to hug them both. She may have been acting like nothing had happened, but she gave everything away to Marinette when she hugged Adrien a bit tighter and longer than usual.

Tom walked out of the kitchen soon after and copied the sentiment.

Adrien took in a shaky breath, thankful for the love Marinette's parents seemed to have for him. "Can we talk to you?"

"Of course, dear." Sabine smiled, "You and Marinette go upstairs, we'll close up and meet you there."

He nodded, and Marinette gently pulled him up the stairs to sit in the living room. Sabine and Tom joined them moments later.

"So I'm sure you've seen the news lately…" Adrien said, but trailed off, not really wanting to discuss the specifics.

They just nodded, so he continued. "Well, Marinette and I had something we wanted to tell you that is somewhat related to that."

"What is it, dear?" Sabine directed her question at Marinette.

"Well…" Marinette started. She took a deep breath before she continued. "For about twelve years now, Adrien and I have been Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"Now that the risk is gone, I wanted to tell you. Sorry for keeping the secret for so long, but Marinette was really trying to protect you. I was trying to protect you." Adrien added.

Marinette's parents just smiled. "Oh sweetheart," Tom said, placing his hand on his daughter's shoulder, "We've known for years. But I'm glad you finally told us."

Marinette and Adrien were shocked. They were expecting her parents to be surprised, maybe a little bit angry, or disappointed in them for keeping this secret from them. They certainly weren't expecting this.

"You _knew?_ " Marinette gasped.

Her mother laughed. "Of course dear, the walls of our house aren't that thick you know. We always heard you talking to, what was her name? Kikki?"

"Tikki," said kwami said, floating out of Marinette's purse. "Nice to officially meet you."

"Ah yes." Sabine grinned. "Nice to meet you too Tikki. Where's the small cat that likes to steal our cheese?"

"Plagg," he said on his way out from Adrien's pocket. "Thanks for that, by the way."

"Besides," Sabine continued, "I'd recognize my own daughter anywhere. Cloaking magic or not. We've known since you fought that zookeeper."

"The more we saw you, Adrien, the more we figured you out too. You two weren't always as quiet as you thought up there after 'patrol' and I didn't think my daughter would've cheated on her boyfriend with Chat Noir."

Marinette and Adrien were crimson now.

Adrien coughed awkwardly, "Uh, I'm sorry, sir."

"Would you two like some tea?" Sabine asked. Her and Tom were chuckling lightly at the two being reduced back to the blushing teenagers they were years ago.

"Come Marinette, help me make it. I have a feeling Adrien wants to ask your father something." Sabine winked at Adrien. _How did she know?_

She complied, leaving the two men alone. Adrien suddenly felt very small being left alone next to Tom.

"What was it you wanted to ask, m'boy?" Tom smiled.

"Um, well..." Adrien to figure out how to phrase his next statement. "As you know, Marinette is very accomplished in her field, with her name being recognized by a lot of people..."

Tom nodded.

"Well, because of that, and also in light of recent…events," Adrien managed weakly, "I was worried what her taking my last name might do to her. To both of us."

"Have you spoken with her about this?" Tom asked.

"Not exactly..."

"Well I think you need to. Marinette!" He called. She walked out of the kitchen to sit back next to Adrien.

"Yes, Papa?"

"I think you need to be here for this conversation. Please continue, Adrien."

"Well, as I just told your father, I'm worried that recent events will bring you down when we get married if you take my last name…"

She put her hands on his while he continued, growing even more shaky.

"Maybe it would be in everyone's best interest if I took your last name instead? If it's okay with you that is… uh, I probably should've brought this up at home. I'm sorry, I-"

"Adrien," Marinette interrupted. "Of course it's okay with me."

Sabine had returned with the tea during the middle of the conversation, and was now sitting next to Tom.

"And if you were worried about us," Tom said, "we've viewed you as part of our family for years, son. It's perfectly okay if you want to make it official."

"Besides," Sabine added, "If you haven't already noticed, we're pretty progressive when it comes to names."

Adrien smiled for the first time in days before he practically leaped over the table to hug them.

* * *

A few months after their wedding, Ladybug and Chat Noir made their first public appearance. Everyone that mattered to them now knew their identities, including Alya and Nino. They had never felt so free.

Adrien had bounced back from the final battle with Hawkmoth with barely a hitch. Sure it still hurt (a lot), but he refused to let it affect the happiness he felt sitting next to his beautiful wife on the Eiffel Tower.

"Hey, kitty…" Marinette said. Her arm was looped around his back, hugging him tight. "Did you ever want kids?"

"Where's this coming from, My Lady?" he moved his head off of the top of hers to look at her.

"Just answer the question."

"Of course, don't you remember…" he said, but paused. "Why?"

She had sat up too, obviously pleased with his answer. Her eyes were shining, and she was almost glowing in the soft moonlight.

"Adrien," she whispered. "I'm pregnant."

"What?" He exclaimed, eyes flicking down to her stomach before meeting her eye again. He was smiling at her like she was a goddess who had just come down from the heavens to personally bless him. "Really?"

She nodded. He crushed her into a hug quickly, but released her only a second later. "Wait, why are we out here then? You need to take it easy!"

Marinette just giggled and rolled her eyes, "Oh kitty, I'm perfectly fine. In fact, I'll race you home."

With that, she swung off, leaving behind a very happy cat with a very goofy grin on his face. _Mon dieu_ he loved her.

He made a promise to himself that night to be the best father a child could ask for.


	8. Suspicions

It had been a week and a half since the twins had shown up. There hadn't been any sight of an akuma since the one that first day of school, and no sight of Le Sablier either. They were starting to wonder if he was even in the same time as they were.

Ladybug and Chat Noir still met for patrol regularly, but they had worked out a bit of an interesting schedule. Emma and Adrien would patrol on Monday, Hugo and Marinette on Wednesday, Marinette and Adrien on Friday, and the four of them would each take a different quadrant of the city on Saturdays and Sundays. The most important thing was that they made sure they were never all seen together, nor with two of the same hero in the same spot. It seemed to be working, for the most part.

* * *

Alya was suspicious.

"Look at this," Alya shoved her phone in Marinette's face as soon as she sat down. It was a photo from Marinette and Hugo's last patrol.

"What?" Marinette said innocently. "It's just Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"Well yeah, but don't you think Chat Noir looks different? His hair looks a lot darker, and I didn't think he was that tall."

"Can I see?" Emma asked from behind. Alya nodded and passed the phone back. The twins had managed to pull a bargain with Ivan to switch seats while they were in town, allowing them to sit directly behind the two girls, which allowed them to not only be part of conversations like this, but also observe their parents better.

"I think it's just the angle and the lighting." Emma said matter-of-factly after examining the photo for a few moments. She pointed the phone back at Alya and began to take it apart. "I think Chat is standing on that ledge there, while Ladybug is just on the roof, making him look taller. The street lamp is also shining the light behind them, so it's just a light trick that makes his hair look darker."

Alya stared at the photo for a few more seconds before she sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Oh! What about this one?" She showed the three of them the next photo.

This one was a little harder to come up with an explanation for. It was a photo from Emma and Adrien's patrol. While it didn't contain any incriminating evidence regarding their identities, it was much clearer than the last photo.

"That's definitely Chat Noir, but that's definitely not Ladybug." Alya explained.

"Looks like Ladybug to me." Hugo said, and squinted at the photo. "She got the mask and yo-yo and everything."

Alya rolled her eyes. "Did you pay attention to the last photo? Ladybug has dark hair. This girl is blonde."

"Maybe she dyed her hair?" Emma suggested.

"I thought of that," Alya admitted, "but this Ladybug's hair is longer too, and in one ponytail instead of the two on the sides."

"I think I know what's going on," a new voice said. It was Adrien. "You know how Chloé likes to dress up as Ladybug? She was probably out and about and hounded Chat Noir for a photo."

"Ugh," Alya groaned as she looked at the photo again. "You're probably right. Darn, I thought I was on to something here."

* * *

Marinette was suspicious.

Adrien and Emma had decided to hold their fencing competition after school, with Hugo, Alya, Nino and Marinette coming to watch. Marinette was surprised when they asked her to come, since she hadn't remembered ever hearing Emma talk to Adrien about fencing before. Obviously she was still going to go; she never passed up an opportunity that involved Adrien, and she was currently responsible for Emma.

The gym was cleared out except for one fencing mat, the four observers, and equipment for the two fencers. They emerged from their respective locker rooms moments after, both wearing the large white uniforms with their masks held at their sides,

"Are you sure she's not Adrien's cousin instead of yours, Marinette?" Nino asked. "Because dude, right now they look like they could even be siblings."

Marinette laughed the comment off, but looked back at the two. They were shaking hands now, and Marinette was filled with a sense of glee to see that Adrien was still wearing her lucky charm. Once again, her eyes moved from the charm to his ring. _Where have I seen that ring before?_

Nino had a point, though. Adrien and Emma did look kind of similar. Apart from the obvious blond hair similarity, they had similar skin tones (although Emma was just _slightly_ paler), and their noses were the same shape. _Weird,_ Marinette thought.

The match began before Marinette's thoughts could get any further. They had decided beforehand that they would do five rounds, and the winner of each round would be the one to land five hits first. Whoever won three out of five would be the champion.

Adrien easily won the first round. He had landed five blows in under 7 minutes, but it was obvious that Emma was skilled too, managing to land three blows of her own.

"Is that all you got?" He teased her.

"I'm just warming up, and you got beginners luck!"

"Come on, little bug, I'm sure you've got plenty of luck of your own!"

That comment struck Marinette as strange. Little bug? Was that some kind of nickname, or just an insult? Why did it seem like more than just competitive taunting? It almost seemed like Adrien knew more than he let on. Luck? Bug? Sure, Emma _was_ Ladybug, but Adrien didn't know that.

Emma won the next two matches, and Adrien the fourth. It was down to the final match to decide who would win.

"Hey, Marinette. Are you okay?" Hugo put his hand on her shoulder, and she could feel the cold metal of his ring through her blazer. It seemed to snap her out of wherever her mind had drifted.

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine. I'm a bit tired is all, and I was just thinking about something and I guess my mind wandered off."

"Are you sleeping okay? I know you aren't used to sharing a bed and I'm sure Emma wouldn't mind if you'd rather have it to yourself. I can sleep on the floor and give her the couch."

"No!" Marinette yelled, maybe a bit louder than she meant. "I'm fine, really. Ask Alya, I'm kind of always like this. It's really no big deal."

"If you say so…"

They turned their attention back to the match just in time to see Emma land the winning blow.

"YES!" She yelled and punched her fists up in the air. "I won! Finally!" Adrien just laughed and took his mask off to shake her hand again.

"I guess you won fair and square." He said, "I think you and Marinette have a secret. I can't seem to beat these Dupain girls at anything this week." He winked at Marinette.

"Whatever," Emma laughed, leaned into him a bit closer, and spoke in a softer tone of voice so Alya's camera couldn't hear her, just in case she was still recording. "I just want it to be remembered that on this day I finally beat you at fencing."

With that, she skipped off back towards the locker room.

* * *

Adrien was suspicious.

When he had spoken with Emma after their mini fencing tournament, he had finally seen her earrings. Now that he knew what Ladybug's untransformed Miraculous looked like, maybe he'd finally be able to find her.

The only problem was that Marinette had the same earrings.

Did they just look similar to Emma's? Adrien couldn't be sure. He was never close enough to either of them to actually examine their earrings, and he probably wasn't going to get that close anytime soon. But, as far as he could tell, they both had black stones that had some sort of reddish undertone in the lights.

But he knew Marinette wasn't Ladybug. She was kind, caring, and brave like Ladybug, but she was just so painfully shy around Adrien most of the time that he knew there was no way she was his confident Lady. Right?

But the earrings made him suspicious. He tried thinking of everything he knew about Ladybug and Marinette that he knew for sure were the same, but the only thing he could come up with was that they were both only-children.

Maybe Emma had just taken out her Miraculous to come to school? Maybe since she couldn't transform in the daylight, she just replaced them with something else and left them at Marinette's house for safekeeping. They probably had the same earrings because she borrowed them from Marinette. Besides, he always just assumed that Ladybug's earrings stayed plain red once they had lost all their spots and she detransformed.

That theory had problems too, however. Adrien couldn't see a reason for Emma to take her Miraculous off, even if she wasn't planning on transforming. Hugo still wore his ring every day, after all.

The only thing Adrien could think of to put his mind at rest was to visit Marinette while he and Ladybug were patrolling. If she was home while Ladybug was covering the other side of city, then there was no way they could be the same person. Once he'd confirmed that, maybe he'd ask Emma about her earrings.

Luckily, it was Friday. He wouldn't have to wait long to find out.

* * *

Emma answered when he tapped on the rooftop hatch.

"Everything okay?" She asked, and glanced behind him. "Where's Ladybug?"

"Everything's fine." He replied, "Do you mind if I come in for a second? Before I go back to patrolling."

Emma nodded and moved out of the way so he could climb down. He saw that the computer was on, a video had been paused, and there were headphones lying next to the screen. Emma must've been watching a movie.

Hugo was in the room too, laying on the floor reading a book off Marinette's shelves. They greeted each other briefly when Chat landed on the floor.

But he didn't see the person he had come to see.

"What was it that you needed?" Emma asked him once she shut the hatch. She climbed down and went to sit in the computer chair, leaving Chat standing alone in the middle of the room. Hugo had looked up from his book too and was giving him a questioning glance.

"Where's Marinette?" He asked.

They jolted, ever so slightly, at his question. He made note of that reaction. If Marinette really was Ladybug, then she was currently on the other side of town. It was late at night, so he knew she couldn't be doing anything for her parent's bakery because it had been closed for hours. If she was just Marinette then she should be there.

"Oh, um.. She's…" Emma trailed off and shot a pleading look at Hugo.

"I think she's in the shower." He supplied.

"Right!" Emma cheered. "That's what she said. I think she went to take a shower like five minutes ago? I mean if you wanted to talk to her, you could wait, but um... she takes really long showers? Yeah. So it could be like an hour, and you shouldn't put patrol off that long."

Adrien didn't really believe what Emma was telling him, but it wasn't like he was going to barge into the bathroom to confirm that Marinette really was in the shower. He sighed.

"It's fine. I'll come back another day." He started climbing back up the ladder, but decided to ask his other question anyway.

"Hey, Em?"

"Hmm?"

"Your earrings, the one's you're wearing right now, are they your Miraculous?"

She gave him a weird look, but nodded regardless. He figured that was the case. One thing Adrien knew for sure was that he had a lot more investigating to do. He pushed open the hatch and climbed on to the balcony.

"Chat?" A voice said behind him. It was Ladybug, looking like she had just landed there herself. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, um… Well, I was patrolling the area, and I figured I'd come say hi." _Why are you here,_ he thought. _Is it because you're Marinette?_ "What are you doing here?"

Ladybug looked like she didn't have an answer to his question. Her usual mask of confidence wavered slightly. "Oh I was just coming to check up on them too, um, before I went home that is."

He just nodded. "They're just watching a movie and reading. They haven't seen Le Sablier or anything." Adrien thought about how to get more clues for his investigation as he watched Ladybug awkwardly standing there. "I actually was hoping to catch Marinette, but it seems she's in the shower."

"Oh?" Ladybug looked up at him. "What did you want to talk to Marinette about?"

"Oh, nothing." He smirked at her reaction. Adrien could practically see the curiosity burning in her eyes. "It can wait."

Before she could respond again, he jumped off the balcony to do a quick sweep around his patrol jurisdiction before returning home.

"What was that?" Plagg asked when they got back. "You were being weird."

Adrien tossed the package of cheese he was holding to Plagg. "I wasn't being weird."

"Yeah you were, what's up?"

Adrien sighed and sat down on his bed, placing his head in his hands.

"Plagg, do you know who Ladybug is?"

"Well, yeah. I'm not the oblivious one here..." He grumbled the last part quietly. "But don't go asking me for hints. Tikki would have my head and I need that to eat cheese."

Adrien just nodded, figuring as much. If it were up to Plagg, Adrien would've found out Ladybug's identity ages ago.

"I think Marinette might be Ladybug." He finally said after a while.

Plagg's reaction gave nothing away. "What makes you say that?"

Throwing himself back on his bed, he replied, "Marinette and Emma have the same earrings."

Plagg floated over to sit next to him, and he continued. "I mean it's not just that. Marinette and Ladybug look alike too, which I guess isn't saying much since Alya thinks Emma and Chloé look alike. But, Marinette and Ladybug both have dark hair, they both have blue eyes, they both wear their hair the same way, I mean how much of that could just be coincidence?"

"Well what if they are the same? What would you then?" Plagg asked. "It would solve the fact that you have a crush on both of them."

Adrien sat back up, "I don't have a crush on Marinette. She's just my friend. Besides, I love Ladybug. If she really was Marinette I would've noticed a long time ago. I'd recognize Ladybug anywhere, I'm sure."

"Whatever you say, kid. I've finished my cheese, so I'm going to bed. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Plagg." Adrien sighed as he crawled into bed himself. He tried to sleep, but his mind kept playing every interaction he'd ever had with Ladybug and Marinette. After a while, they blurred together.

* * *

 **A/N: So I've actually had this written for over a week, but I got so distracted by all the amazing episodes we've gotten recently that I forgot to post it yesterday.**

 **Has Adrien figured it out? Or is he too blinded by his own denial? Will Marinette ever make the connection between the rings?**


	9. Seeing Double

Marinette often wondered who Hawkmoth was, and if he knew who she and Chat Noir really were behind the masks. It was doubtful, but there had to be some explanation for many of the akuma being her friends and classmates. Maybe he could just sense the Miraculous, rather than pinpoint it on a single person and was trying to figure it out by a process of elimination. If that were the case, then he was getting close; the only people in her class that hadn't been akumatized were Ivan and Adrien. She hadn't either, of course, but Tikki had told her that the Miraculous protected its wielder from such corruption.

Marinette briefly wondered if Hawkmoth had narrowed down Chat's class in the same way. How many of the akumas had been his friends?

* * *

 _Well, Hawkmoth has really narrowed it down now._ Marinette thought as she swung in to battle. Of course, it was Chloé who inevitably led to Ivan's akumatization.

After an extremely rude and offhand comment about 'how much space the boy took up,' and a couple of insults to both him and Mylene, Ivan had become The Shrinker.

His power was just like it sounded. Marinette had evacuated the classroom so the other students wouldn't get hit by his shrink ray. She even managed to convince Alya and Nino to stay out of harm's way this time, and once everyone was gone, she had transformed.

Emma and Hugo had also gotten out of harm's way but had stayed close enough to watch the battle unfold in front of them. Hugo, as the calm, collected person he was, was happy to observe rather than interfere. Emma, on the other hand, was starting to go stir crazy. Sure, she still got to be Ladybug during her stay in the past, but patrols were nothing compared to the thrill of an actual akuma fight.

"They really have to be careful this time," Hugo whispered to her in their hiding spot near the locker room. "I don't know about Cataclysm, but I doubt Ladybug can purify the akuma if it's bigger than her."

They watched as Chat narrowly back-flipped over another beam from the shrink ray. They had managed to contain the fight to the school's courtyard, but even though the akuma's range of motion was limited, Ladybug's and Chat Noir's were too.

"Should we help them?" Emma asked. Hugo just shook his head.

"They've got this."

"You know," she observed, "this is the third akuma attack since we've been here and we still haven't seen Le Sablier. I'm really starting to worry about if he's even here."

"I know," Hugo said. "I worry too. I'm just hoping he shows up soon. This is great and all, but I actually miss mom and dad. It's just too weird seeing them this young. I miss my friends too."

Emma could relate, but she was actually having a really good time in the past. In a weird way, she had become friends with her parents. She just felt like that the longer they were here, the better she would understand her parents when they returned.

"Hey, Em. Do you think that Le Sablier could be hanging around the attacks?"

She pondered it for a moment, before replying. "I guess he could be, I wouldn't really see any reason for it though."

Hugo nodded, and Emma could see him formulating a plan. "I'm going to go look." He finally said. "You stay here."

With all the stealth of Chat Noir, he managed to creep out of the hiding space and beside the battle that was still taking place. As he ran off down the hallway, Emma noticed Alya army crawling into a position to record the end of the fight. Apparently she hadn't taken Marinette's advice to seek safety.

 _Of course. A journalist can't ignore a scoop._

Emma kept watch over Alya in her peripheral as she turned her attention back to the battle.

* * *

"Chat, look out!" Ladybug yelled as yet another beam shot towards her partner.

"No fears, my Lady, I've got this under claw-trol." While he was talking, a beam struck his baton. It shrunk to the size of a chopstick in his hand.

"You were saying?" Ladybug sighed. Chat just shrugged and attempted to hook the miniature baton to his back. It was too small and simply clattered to the ground with barely a metal ting.

"Give me your Miraculous!" the Shrinker yelled. He seemed to be getting just as tired of this game as Ladybug and Chat.

"I've had enough of this." Ladybug sighed. "Lucky Charm!" The bright pink light faded to reveal a red and black spotted mirror.

"That actually seems pretty straight forward for once," Chat remarked. They were still trying to dodge the beams, which made making her plan that much harder.

"Okay, Chat. Here's what I need you to do."

"I'm all ears."

"Okay, use your Cataclysm on the basketball goal and try to trap him under it."

He nodded, and she went to get the mirror in position. The akuma was in a rubber bracelet he was wearing that Mylene had given him. Marinette hopped if she could use the mirror to deflect the shrink beam _just right_ she could hit the bracelet and shrink it enough that it would simply snap off his wrist.

"CATACLYSM!" She heard Chat yell as the Shrinker moved into position under the basketball net. The pole rusted out and with a swipe of his claw came tumbling down towards Ivan. Now she just had to hope the mirror was in the right position as he began rapidly firing off blasts.

One managed to hit the mirror.

And headed straight for Chat Noir.

The trajectory hadn't been off on her part, it was just simply the amount of blasts that Ivan had fired. She just hoped her plan would work and Chat wouldn't be shrunken for long.

She didn't have time to ponder that though, because right as the beam was about to hit Chat, he was pushed out of the way in a flash of red. Marinette couldn't focus on what it was though, because another beam had managed to hit Ivan's bracelet at the same time.

Like she had predicted, the rubber shrunk until it snapped off his wrist, releasing the inky black butterfly back into the sky. Ladybug quickly captured it in her yo-yo and cleansed it, before finally turning her attention back to Chat.

The first thing she noticed was Alya, who had a look of surprise and excitement on her face as she had her camera pointed at where Chat Noir was laying on the ground...next to Ladybug.

 _Oh no._

* * *

In Emma's defense, Hugo was 75 percent of her impulse control.

It was quite the reversal from the current Ladybug and Chat Noir, where Ladybug was the level-headed analytical one and Chat saw himself as the bodyguard.

Sure Emma was still a very good problem solver, you really had to be in order to figure out what to do with those random Lucky Charms, but she was also _very_ impulsive. When she thinks before she acts, things turn out great, but more often than not, she tends to just act first.

It's what had ultimately landed her and Hugo here in the first place. If she had actually formed a strategy in that first battle, she wouldn't have tried to grab on to him as he was hit with the time-travel magic. Sure, he still would've gotten sent back here, but at least Emma still would've been there to capture the akuma and bring him back to their time with her healing light.

It had also landed her in this situation, where the need to help in battle combined with her rash nature had just ruined everything they had tried to accomplish.

She didn't consider that the akuma would be caught soon enough that if Chat were to be hit by the shrink ray it wouldn't have mattered. The only thing that ran through her mind was _protect._ She transformed in almost a split second and tackled Chat out of the way, avoiding the beam. The two of them rolled across the court…and landed right in front of Alya, who was still live streaming the battle.

"What are you doing?" Chat hissed in her ear. She ignored him, and instead slapped Alya's phone out of her hand. Emma saw Ladybug's healing light wash over the courtyard, repairing all the damage that had been done.

Well, everything except the damage she had caused by showing herself at the same time as Ladybug.

When she heard Marinette's gasp, she pushed up off the floor and ran. She didn't really pay attention to where she was going, swinging wildly over the rooftops of Paris, but eventually ended up on top of Notre Dame. It was probably muscle memory. The old cathedral was her favorite place to sit back in her own time.

"I've ruined everything," she whispered into the wind as she slowly let the sounds of the city replace her thoughts.

* * *

"I knew that was another Ladybug!" Alya cheered as Ladybug came over to help Chat Noir up off the ground. They both only had a few minutes before their transformations wore off. "Do you guys know her? Who is she? Are you guys retiring and training someone to take your place? Is there another Chat Noir?"

"Alya," Chat sounded uncharacteristically serious, "you can't let that video get out."

Alya looked stunned that Chat Noir actually knew her name, but immediately took a step back to distance herself from the heroes.

"I-I can't do that." She saw fury flash briefly in his eyes. "I mean I totally would if I could, since you asked, but the feed was live. It already posted. I can try to take it down, but I can't do that from my phone and it already has thousands of views. I'm sorry."

Marinette figured that would be the case. She dragged Chat away from the apologetic journalist, passed a very confused Ivan, and into an empty classroom. She needed to make this quick.

"Listen," she said. She pulled up his chin to make him meet her eyes. "There's nothing we can do right now. Our time is almost up, but we'll go talk to her. Together. Meet me back here in half an hour after you let Plagg recharge."

* * *

Emma didn't know when the tears had started, but when she finally sat up she noticed how cold the tracks on her face felt in the breeze.

There was a soft thump behind her.

"I thought you might be here," Chat Noir—Hugo—said. When she didn't reply, he just went and sat down next to her. "I was only gone for five minutes, but everyone was gone when I got back. What happened?"

He always seemed to understand what was wrong with her, even if he hadn't been there to see it himself. Maybe it was a twin thing, or maybe Hugo was just really good at reading people. Emma didn't know, and right now she didn't care.

"I messed up," she sobbed, laying back down on the cool stone of the roof. "I messed up everything and now I've probably ruined the future and our lives and we'll never be born—"

"Hey," he cut her off, and laid down next to her. His eyes didn't leave the sky. "What happened?" he repeated.

Emma took a deep breath, "I wasn't thinking."

"What else is new?" Hugo tried to joke. She gave him a scathing look. "Sorry, that probably wasn't the right thing to say. Keep going."

"So Ladybug had used her lucky charm, a mirror, to reflect the shrink rays to the akumatized bracelet, but a stray beam bounced off and was heading straight for Chat Noir. So I did what seemed like a good idea at the time, I transformed and pushed him out of the way."

"So what's the problem? All you did was save him, even if you really didn't need to."

Tears welled up in her eyes again. "Alya had come back. She recorded the whole thing. It's all over the Ladyblog."

Hugo didn't say anything for a few moments, and when Emma looked over he was still staring at the sky.

After a while, he sighed. "Well now that the cat's out of the bag—"

"Hugo now is really not the time for puns."

"Just hear me out," He chuckled, "Now that the cat's out of the bag, we just need to find Le Sablier even faster, before anything else goes wrong."

"Gee," Emma started sarcastically, "Now why didn't I think of that? Actually find and capture the akuma? And here I was thinking we were just here on vacation!"

"I'm just trying to help," Hugo mumbled.

"Yeah, but you're really _really_ bad at it."

They were both laughing lightly now, and Emma turned her attention away from her unhelpful brother and back to the sky.

"Did you find anything when you went to look for him during the attack?"

Hugo rubbed his eyes over his mask. "Not really. Nothing concrete anyways. There might have been some sand, but I don't know if that was a clue or just from the building."

"Hugo, what are we going to do if he's not here?"

"It doesn't do well to dwell on possibilities."

"Is that from a book?"

"No.." Hugo paused, "Maybe? I don't think so…"

"You are such a dork." She rolled her eyes, even though he couldn't see. "But seriously, answer my question. What will we do?"

"I have absolutely no idea." Hugo sat up and looked out on the city. "I just have this feeling that he's here somewhere. Maybe he's just waiting for us to show ourselves? This akuma was definitely smarter than the others. Or maybe he just hasn't found what he's looking for yet?"

"Well, if he wasn't waiting for us to mess up, I've certainly gone and done that." Emma stood up and pulled out her yo-yo, "I'm going to go do a quick sweep. I'll meet you back at Mom's, okay?"

"Be careful," Hugo said, but he sounded more tired than concerned. "I think I'm going to stay here and take a little cat nap. I'll see you later."

With that, Hugo laid back on the roof and closed his eyes. Emma swung out into the city.

 _I'm going to find this akuma and end this. I'm Ladybug, I can do anything._


	10. Search and Discover

Adrien had fed Plagg as quickly as he could before transforming to meet Ladybug back in the classroom. Any of his previous thoughts about the possibility of Marinette and Ladybug being the same person were pushed completely to the back of his mind, replaced with concern for Emma.

His tone was pretty harsh with her earlier, but the more he thought about it, the more he thought he probably would have done the same thing. He felt _guilty._

When he snuck into the classroom, Ladybug was already there. She was sitting at one of the desks with her head in her arms on the table. If Adrien had been paying more attention, he would've realized she was sitting in Marinette's seat.

"Ladybug?" he questioned softly. He closed the door as quietly as he could and went to sit in the seat in front of her. When she didn't reply, he poked her lightly on the arm. "Ladybug, wake up."

She looked up, but her expression didn't look tired.

"Oh, sorry Chat. I was just thinking and talking to Tikki, too. I guess I didn't hear you come in."

"No problem, My Lady."

"So what happened out there?"

Chat Noir tried to think. All he really saw was Ivan shoot off a bunch of shrink rays, then suddenly Emma had tackled him to the ground as Ladybug.

"I don't know, I was just standing there and then she tackled me. There might have been a shrink ray heading right for me, but I can't recall…The only thing I zeroed in on was that we landed right in front of Alya's camera."

Ladybug sighed and put her head back on the desk. The wood was still warm from where she had rested earlier and it did nothing to clear her thoughts. She was worried about Emma. The girl had seemed really upset when she had ran out of the gym, and she hadn't seen Hugo at all. Where did he go?

She mumbled something in reply to him, but he couldn't hear it because the desk muffled it.

"What was that?" he asked.

She looked up again. "I'm worried about her. She seemed more upset than anyone when she ran out of here. And where was Hugo?"

Chat just nodded. "What are we going to do now that the cat's out of the bag on there being two Ladybugs, too? You heard Alya, half of Paris has probably seen the video by meow."

"Now's not really the time for cat puns, Chat." She rolled her eyes, "But you're right. We need to find them and come up with a new plan of action."

Ladybug stood up and motioned towards the open window. Chat followed. "I hope I didn't sound too harsh earlier," he muttered. They climbed in the window sill and jumped out towards the city.

"I'm sure she's fine, Chat. Let's see if they're at Marinette's first, and if they aren't we'll scan the city."

"Good idea, My Lady. Maybe even if they aren't there, Marinette saw one of them. We can always ask her."

Ladybug gave a noncommittal nod as they swung onto Marinette's balcony in one swoop. "It's locked," Chat said.

"Not a problem," Ladybug shrugged. She moved over to a small cat statue in front of a flowerpot and pulled a key out from under it. "See? I know where the key is."

Chat was stunned for a second, but then he remembered two important things. One, he was fairly sure that Ladybug is Marinette. She probably knew where the key was because she put it there. Two, even if she wasn't Marinette, he had always been told that Ladybug and Marinette were friends. She probably left the key there for the superheroine in case of emergencies.

"Ah. My Lady, you've just shown me where the key is now. What's going to stop me from sneaking in and stealing all the bakery goods?"

"Well, I'll just have to warn Marinette then," Ladybug replied.

"She practically made it an invitation by leaving it under a _cat_ statue. You may not know this, My Lady, but I think she has a soft spot for me."

Ladybug rolled her eyes. _In your dreams,_ she thought.

She unlocked the hatch and they climbed on to the floor. No one was home.

"Great," Chat said. "Now, not only am I worried about where Emma and Hugo have gotten too, but also Marinette. She should've come here after she evacuated the class…" he realized he wasn't supposed to know that, but decided to just drop off there. Maybe Ladybug wouldn't notice.

Ladybug noticed. How did Chat Noir know that she had evacuated the class? She had transformed into Ladybug as soon as everyone had left, so there's no way he could've known Marinette was even there. Unless someone told him? Or…was Chat Noir in her class? Surely she would've noticed.

Besides, Chat Noir had a Miraculous. He couldn't be akumatized, and everyone in her class had been an akuma except…Adrien.

 _Is Chat Noir, Adrien?_ She panicked at the thought and looked over at the catboy. They both had blonde hair, green eyes, and a similar build, but there was just no way. Chat was extremely vocal and flamboyant, whereas ever since she had met Adrien he had been quiet and reserved.

She decided to just push the thought away. They had more important things to do right now. Finding Emma and Hugo was their top priority.

"I'm sure Marinette is fine." Ladybug finally replied after a while, "I'm going to check the Ladyblog really quick to see if there has been a sighting recently."

Chat nodded and went to browse her bookshelf while she pulled out her yo-yo and looked at Alya's blog. She noticed that Alya had taken down the video, but it was too late. The forum was blowing up with comments on the new Ladybug and sharing screenshots from the now-deleted livestream. Finally, near the bottom, she saw a dark blur that looked like Chat Noir standing on top of Notre Dame. It was old, posted an hour ago, but it was the only lead they had.

"Okay, Chat. I found something." She held the screen towards him.

"Looks like we're heading to Notre Dame then?" He asked, already moving back toward the hatch. She nodded and followed after him.

When they climbed out, Chat turned to her. "Shouldn't you re-lock the hatch, My Lady?"

"No. I'll leave it unlocked incase the twins come through here as Ladybug and Chat Noir and try to get in."

"Are you sure Marinette won't mind?"

"You're really fixated on Marinette today, Chat. Is there something you aren't telling me? Do you _like her?_ " Her voice got teasing at the end. She expected him to reply with some comment about how he couldn't possibly love anyone but Ladybug, but she certainly didn't expect the reaction he gave.

He was blushing, not making eye contact with her, and playing with the end of his belt tail. Marinette didn't know what to do with that reaction. It reminded her a bit about how he had been the other night when she had spoken to him as Marinette on her balcony.

"I just care a lot about her okay? She's done a lot for us and I don't want something to happen to her because of it. She's my friend."

The sincerity took Ladybug by surprise. _He cares about me. He cares a lot about Marinette. Marinette is his friend. Chat Noir might be Adrien._ With that last thought, she shook her head to clear it yet again.

"I don't think she'll mind, Chat. Come on, let's go find the twins."

They swung and vaulted towards the cathedral in silence.

* * *

Marinette's heart stopped when they got to Notre Dame and she saw Hugo, dressed as Chat Noir, lying motionless on the roof. Chat Noir seemed panicked too, but as they made their way over to him, they noticed his slow, steady breathing and peaceful expression. He was asleep.

"Hugo, wake up." Chat poked him with the end of his baton.

"Just a few more minutes," the boy mumbled in reply.

Marinette didn't understand why he decided to sleep on a roof. Also, it was sunny outside and he was dressed from head to toe in black leather. He must've been burning.

"Hugo," she shook his shoulder softly. "Where's Emma?"

That seemed to wake him up a little more, at least enough that he sat up. "She's not at you—mo—Marinette's house?"

"No." Ladybug replied. He had almost just given away two major secrets at once, but she couldn't really blame him when he was still half asleep.

"Why were you sleeping on the roof of Notre Dame?" Chat asked.

Hugo smiled. "Cat nap. Feels great to lay out in the sun, and the sounds of the city just lulled me to sleep."

Chat smiled at him and nodded in what Marinette assumed was understanding.

"You two are such cats," she rolled her eyes, "but did you see Emma before you fell asleep?"

"Yeah," Hugo replied. "She was up here earlier. This is her favorite spot. She was really upset about what happened at the school."

Ladybug and Chat Noir exchanged a glance. That was what they'd been worried about. They knew she couldn't become an akuma, but it didn't mean she couldn't get hurt or lost due to recklessness.

"She said she was going to do a quick sweep around the city, and the go back to Marinette's." Hugo finished.

"How long ago was that?" Chat asked.

"I don't know," Hugo looked at the board displaying the time across the street. "Maybe an hour ago? She should've been back by now."

The fact that Hugo looked concerned too made Marinette even more nervous. She really hoped Emma wasn't hurt.

"She probably just decided she needed more air," Hugo tried to reassure them, but didn't sound very certain himself. "She's been getting kind of stir crazy, and even at home she always needs to be doing something. Plus, she was upset, and usually when she's upset she runs either on a track or as Ladybug through the city. I wouldn't be too worried, unless she isn't back by dark."

Marinette and Adrien nodded. They both understood that. Marinette had swung all around Paris as Ladybug for hours after she failed a physics test a few months ago. Adrien was constantly using his Chat Noir transformation to escape his problems. Sometimes you just had to feel the freedom of a superhero when civilian life got tough.

"Okay, well, I guess we'll just wait then. Let me know if she's not back at Marinette's by dark." Ladybug sighed. "I'm going to go home. I have a lot of homework to do, and if she's just trying to blow off some steam I don't want to bother her."

Both Chat Noirs in front of her nodded. "I'll go back too, and uh, check on Marinette. I think she had an errand to run earlier, but she should be back by now." Hugo explained and tried not to look at Marinette while he said it.

Adrien sighed. He didn't have much homework and wanted to be able to find out as soon as Emma returned. He had an idea.

"Yeah, I guess I'll go too. Call me when she shows up." Adrien said, and the three of them dispersed.

* * *

Marinette got home about ten minutes after Hugo. She had chosen to circle back around so Chat wouldn't be suspicious if her and Hugo went in the same direction, so she went a block down from Notre Dame, transformed into her civilian self, and walked home.

As soon as she walked in the door, her phone went off. It was a text message from an unknown number, so she put her phone into her pocket to wait until she got to her room to read it. Hugo was there, lounging on the floor and reading. That seemed to be all he did when they weren't patrolling.

"Hey, Hugo." She greeted, even though they had just seen each other a few minutes ago. "You alright?"

He looked up from his book, "I'm just a little bit worried about Emma. I'm sure she's fine, but I'll feel better when she comes back."

"I agree." Marinette said as she sat at her desk. She opened her purse to get her phone, and watched as Tikki flew out to go lounge with Plagg in the cookie tin. Marinette had filled it with danishes and cheese bread this morning, but there was no sign of that now.

She unlocked the phone to look at the message from the unknown sender.

 _Hey, Marinette. It's Adrien. I was just wondering if you were home. I'm having trouble with the English homework and I think you understand it the best. Would you mind helping?_

Marinette was a bit shocked and giddy to get a message out of the blue from her crush, but then she remembered the suspicions she had earlier. If Adrien really was Chat Noir, maybe he just wanted to come over to see when Emma came back?

Either way, she wasn't going to pass up the opportunity. She texted back:

 _Yep, I just got home. I'd love to help you with the English homework. We can study at my house if you want, as long as you don't mind Hugo being here._

She took a deep breath after she sent the message, thankful that it was almost impossible to stutter over text message.

"You okay?" Hugo looked at her strangely and she realized she was tugging on her pigtails. Her phone buzzed again, and she dropped her hands to pick it up.

"I'm fine," she replied. "Adrien's coming over, is that okay with you?"

Hugo nodded. "That's the blond kid from your class, right? The one that came with us to the arcade?"

"Right."

"Alright, he seems like a cool dude."

Just then, the doorbell rang.

"That must be him! That was really fast..." Marinette leaped up and almost tripped over her chair on her way to the stairs. Hugo laughed when she disappeared from view. _They're both so helpless._

Hugo tried to act surprised when they returned, but of course Adrien would come over until Emma returned. He just hoped she came through the front door like a normal person though, because Marinette would probably have a heart attack if she had to try explain to explain to Adrien why Ladybug came in from her roof. Not like he'd need the explanation.

In fact, maybe if Emma did come through the roof hatch it would be just the push their parents would need to finally reveal themselves.

"Hey, Hugo." Adrien greeted.

"Hey Adrien, nice to see you." He replied. "I hope you guys don't mind me being here."

"Not at all," Adrien replied. "I just needed some help on the English homework."

Hugo nodded and returned to his book. Adrien and Marinette moved to her desk, and to Hugo's surprise, actually worked on the English homework.

* * *

"Ugh," Adrien groaned after a while and hit his head on the desk. "I hate English, it's such a complicated language and for what? I think Chinese might actually be easier."

Marinette just rolled her eyes at him. "That's the biggest exaggeration I've ever heard. It's not that hard. Just try a little harder."

"Marinette have you seen how many unnecessary letters there are? Why do they do that? Why does nothing sound the same even though it's spelled the same way?"

"Adrien, English has just as many unnecessary letters and sounds as French. Plus look on the bright side, there's no difference in the gender of the words and you don't have to worry about if the person you're talking to is addressed as _tu_ or _vous._ "

Adrien grumbled something else under his breath and left his head on the desk. Hugo snickered in the corner, but the other two didn't hear and pretty much had forgotten he was there.

"Hey Adrien, have you ever been akumatized?" Marinette suddenly asked. While she hadn't really been thinking about the possibility of him being Chat Noir, it hadn't completely left her thoughts either.

"No?" he replied, obviously finding her sudden change of subject strange. "Why do you ask?"

Marinette thought about just blowing it off, but eventually replied, "Did you know that you and I are the only ones in our class who haven't been akumatized yet? After Ivan today, that is."

Adrien _hadn't_ thought about it actually. Plagg told him that the Miraculous protected him from akumas, no matter how angry he got, and this new information provided more evidence to him that Marinette is really Ladybug. _Same earrings, same hair, same voice, same eyes, never seen in the same place at the same time, never been akumatized._

"That's really strange," he eventually replied. "I know why you haven't been akumatized, though. You're too sweet. I don't think you have a mean bone in your body."

Marinette managed to snort and blush at the same time, but somehow kept her composure. "Yeah, right. I get angry at Chloé all the time. I guess I'm just lucky."

 _She's totally Ladybug,_ Adrien thought.

"Either way, I just think it's a miracle I haven't been akumatized yet," he continued. "Do you think Hawkmoth is targeting our class? Or does Chloé really just make that many people angry?"

"I don't know," Marinette replied. "I don't think you need to worry about being akumatized though. You're too forgiving."

 _And I'm at least 60% sure you're Chat Noir._

Adrien smiled. "Thank you, Marinette," he said in English. Switching back to French, he pointed at the next question on their homework "What does this say?"

Marinette studied it for a second, but couldn't figure it out either. "Hey Hugo," she called. He had put headphones on at some point, but apparently still heard her because he looked up from his book.

"What is it, Marinette?"

"You speak English, right?"

"Eh, I mean I guess. I've been taking it for forever it seems like."

"Can you help us translate this?"

Hugo nodded and placed his headphones and book on the chaise as he got up and walked over to them. Adrien pointed at the problem in question, and when Hugo held his hand up to grab the paper, Marinette finally noticed something she'd been wondering about all along.

Adrien and Hugo had the same ring.

The ring that was Hugo's Miraculous.

The ring that was _Chat Noir's_ _Miraculous_.

 _Adrien Agreste is Chat Noir._

Marinette knew she should be freaking out right now. She should be panicking about what knowing his identity would mean. She should be panicking over the fact that _Adrien Agreste_ had been _flirting_ with her while wearing _skin-tight leather_ for over a year. She should be panicking over how their dynamic would be affected because most of the time Marinette could hardly get a word out properly around Adrien.

But she wasn't panicking. It actually made a lot of sense, and maybe some part of her had known for a long time. Adrien and Chat Noir always thought of other people before themselves, they looked the same, they both seemed so lonely. She trusted Chat completely. She trusted _Adrien_ completely. It just made sense that they were the same person. _Should I tell him I know?_

Her mother's call cut through all activity and thoughts in the room.

"Marinette! Why don't you all come downstairs for dinner?"

Marinette jumped and looked at the clock. It was seven o'clock at night. She glanced out the window and turned to see her worry echoed on Adrien and Hugo's faces. It was dark out.

And Emma still wasn't back.

* * *

 **A/N: That's the last pre-written chapter I have! No fear, spring break is just a few days away, and I plan on finishing this during my time off :)**

 **Hope you are still enjoying! Thanks for your continued support!**


	11. Black Holes and Revelations

**A/N: Shortish Chapter. Unedited (sorry folks) because I wrote it at 2 AM last night. The title of the chapter is a reference to the Muse album I was listening to while writing (there are no black holes in the chapter)**

* * *

Adrien was the first to break the silence, "Um, well, I'd love to stay for dinner, but I've got to go! Uh, photoshoot tomorrow, need sleep! Tell your mom I'm sorry!"

He made a move to run out of the room, but Marinette grabbed his wrist and stopped him. Maybe she wasn't thinking clearly, but when she saw the worry in his eyes, she knew there was no reason to keep skirting the truth.

"We're coming too," she told him firmly, staring him down.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Marinette. I-I'm just going home," Adrien tried to argue. Marinette could tell he was lying; they were all worried about finding Emma.

She moved her hand from his wrist to his fingers, breaking their eye contact for a brief moment. Marinette tried her best not to tremble at the contact. She tapped her finger against his ring and looked back up to see Adrien's panicked face. He looked like he was trying to maintain composure, but his eyes had blown wide and his face way slightly drained of color. Marinette looked back at the ring, still finding it easier to speak if she wasn't looking at him. Thank goodness he couldn't feel how erratic her heartbeat was. She took a deep breath; it was now or never.

"Hugo has the same ring, you know." She released his hand, and he left it floating in the air where she had been holding it. Marinette still refused to make eye contact, but continued, "We're going to go look for Emma, just come with us. You don't need to pretend to go home first."

"It's a very comm—" Adrien started, but Marinette rolled her eyes and cut him off.

"If you are about to tell me that Chat Noir's Miraculous is a very common style, I swear…"

She watched as he tensed. It was brief, however, and he nervously reached up to scratch behind his head.

"So you figured it out then," Adrien sighed. "You can't tell-"

"Hush. You and Hugo go first. I'm going to go let my mom know that we won't be joining them for dinner, then I'm coming too."

"Marinette it might not be safe," Adrien tried to argue. Marinette really looked at him. The color had returned to his face, but his eyes were filled will concern that made it seem like he genuinely thought she was putting herself in danger.

"Have you really not figured it out by now?" She sighed. Marinette braced herself and held eye contact with him, daring him to figure it out before she had to say it for him.

Adrien considered what she could be talking about. Was she trying to tell him that she really was Ladybug? That would make sense. How else would she join them to search for Emma if she couldn't bound along rooftops too? Ladybug was just so secretive about her identity, though. Surely she wouldn't just give it up.

"You're Ladybug?" It came out more like a question than he meant. He repeated, "You're Ladybug."

Marinette just gave him a small smile. He wanted to ask her a million questions, but they really needed to go find Emma. She could be in real danger, and out of the corner of his eye, Adrien could see Hugo was already pacing. Sensing the same signs, Marinette replied, "We'll talk about this later, let's go find Emma."

It only took a minute for Marinette to tell her parents that they had a big English project that they needed to finish before eating. They agreed not to bother them and to leave some plates in the fridge for when they had finished.

Soon, Ladybug and both Chat Noirs were leaping over the roofs of Paris, looking for a blonde girl in a polka dot suit.

* * *

Hugo didn't speak the entire time. He felt sick with worry, and was afraid that if he opened his mouth he would lose it right there. He knew Emma would've come back by now unless something had happened to her, and he began to fear the worst. Of course Marinette and Adrien were worried too, but Hugo doubted that they understood how terrified he was for his sister. Sure, these people may be their parents, but not at this age. At this age they didn't really know them. They just weren't capable of being as worried as he was.

Emma was his twin sister. They had spent practically every minute of their lives together. They were in the same class, shared the same bedroom until they were six, and went to each other's sporting events to cheer the other on. They were crime-fighting partners. She was the one who had pushed him to accept the Miraculous, insisting even more than their father because she couldn't imagine fighting alongside anyone else.

Hugo couldn't even begin to imagine what his life would be like if something terrible had happened to her. And oh my god, what would he tell their parents if he ever made it back home? That their only daughter had died in the past? Would he even get to tell them, or would the timeline be completely ruined to the point where they were never even born? He tried not to think about it. He wouldn't lose his sister. She was too stubborn.

 _Maybe she got lost on her way back_ , he reasoned. _Maybe she stopped to get something to eat. Maybe she got distracted by a cute dog._

They were still so new to this though. Inexperienced in dealing with akumas, especially ones as difficult as Le Sablier. Hugo came up with a million other explanations for where Emma could be while the three searched the city from top to bottom. They had briefly considered splitting up to search faster, but ultimately decided against it. If Emma had encountered danger, they'd stand a better chance facing it together.

* * *

She wasn't moving.

After almost an hour of searching, Hugo had spotted Emma on a rooftop near the Louvre.

She. Wasn't. Moving.

"La-Ladybug! Ch-ch-chat!" He managed to exclaim as he flung himself in her direction. They obviously heard him, and the three of them landed on the roof with a thump almost simultaneously. Hugo immediately ran to Emma's side to make sure she still had a pulse.

It was weak, but it was there nonetheless. Hugo let out the breath he had been holding, but he was shaking so bad he didn't trust himself to make any other movements. He sunk to his knees.

Marinette and Adrien stood a little off to the side while Hugo checked on Emma. It was heartbreaking to both of them to watch his reactions, but at least she was still alive.

"You dork," Hugo said to her shakily, "what happened?"

It was obvious she had run into trouble somewhere along the line. She was still transformed as Ladybug, which was probably for the best due to the healing powers that came with being in costume. Despite that, her yo-yo was cast away on the other side of the small roof, and she had a cut on her face that ran from the edge of her mask to her lip. It wasn't deep, but it must've stung when it happened. Her hair was tangled and her ribbons had torn, but she was _alive._

Hugo glanced back at Marinette and Adrien, both who looked on the verge of tears.

"She'll be fine," Hugo said firmly. It was more for himself than them, but their nods helped reassure him, too. At least they believed him.

"We'll take her back to my house." Marinette said, "That way we can get her somewhere comfortable, treat that cut, and when she wakes up we'll go from there, okay?"

Hugo nodded and managed to stand back up. They had to move Emma, and since Marinette's house was a few blocks away, they'd had to be careful not to jostle her too much incase they'd do further damage.

"Do you think you can carry her, Hugo?" Adrien asked. He didn't want to push Hugo farther than he was emotionally capable, but Hugo was much broader than Adrien and it would probably be more comfortable for Emma. Of course, if Hugo wasn't up to it, Adrien would gladly carry her back.

"Of course," Hugo replied. He managed a weak smile.

Adrien came over to help drape Emma over Hugo's shoulders in the gentlest way possible so they could make their way back. Once they made sure she was secure, they headed back to Marinette's house, with said girl leading the way by quite a few feet to get everything ready for once they got back.

* * *

Hugo laid Emma on Marinette's bed. The three of them detransformed, but it didn't look like Emma was going to be able to anytime soon.

"I'm going to go get the first aid kit and those dinner plates my mom saved for us, okay?" Marinette informed them as she ran down the stairs.

Adrien stood with Hugo near Emma. He really wanted to stay and be there with them, but if he didn't show his face at home soon Nathalie would alert his father. He couldn't risk that.

"You need to go," Hugo said gently. "I understand. Go home, make appearances, and then come back later as Chat."

Adrien wanted to protest, but he knew Hugo was right. He'd just go home for a few minutes, lock himself in his bedroom, and come back as quickly as possible. Besides, he had a lot to talk about with Marinette.

"Okay," Adrien agreed, and quickly transformed back to Chat Noir. "I'll be back in about 15 minutes maximum, make sure Marinette knows I haven't just left her hanging."

Hugo smiled and watched as Adrien climbed back up to the balcony. "Can you bring some cheese back for Plagg, too? I'm tired of listening to him complain."

Chat Noir just laughed and gave a two finger salute as he disappeared.

Marinette came back a few minutes later with a white first aid kit and four plates of stir-fry. She placed the plates on the desk, and climbed up to the bed to begin cleaning Emma's cut.

When she noticed that Hugo was alone, she asked, "Where'd Adrien go?"

Hugo didn't like the look that crossed her face. It was a flicker of hurt and disappointment that crossed her face along with the concern she was showing for Emma.

"He just had to go home to make an appearance so his father didn't get worried. He'll be back as soon as he can."

That cleared up her expressions a little. She just nodded in understanding, and opened the white box she had brought up. She sat down next to where Emma was laying and began to pull out all the supplied that she'd need to address the cut on her face. It didn't look like it was going to get infected, but it was too long for a band aid, so Marinette just cleaned it with the solution and applied a disinfectant cream. It was really unfortunate that the only parts of them that weren't protected while they were transformed were that most visible parts of their heads.

"What do you think did it?" Hugo asked.

"The cut looks like it came from something really sharp, like a knife." Marinette observed. "I'd say she got caught up with some muggers, but judging by where we found her it must've been an akuma."

Marinette put away the first aid supplied and moved to Emma's hair. She stroked the girl's forehead and began to untangle some of her hair with her fingers. Hugo settled on the opposite end of the bed and leaned against the wall. With his eyes closed, he attempted to take deep breaths and calm down a bit.

"I can't imagine how worried you must have been, Hugo, but if you want to talk, you know you can talk to me."

Hugo opened his eyes again to look at Marinette. Emma really did look like her. Same eyes. Same smile. "Have you ever read Harry Potter?" Hugo asked.

If Marinette was surprised by his question, she didn't show it. She had figured out quite early on during their stay that Hugo used books to retreat and relax. He'd read all the books on her shelf already. Maybe he wanted to talk about books as a coping method?

"Yes," she replied. "I had the books here for a while, but I lent them to Alya. She still has them."

Hugo nodded and shifted his eyes to look out the skylight. "I really liked them, up until the end of the last book. The part with Fred and George made me think about how I'd react if something like that ever happened to Emma, and it was something I never wanted to think about ever again. I don't think I'd be able to handle it."

"She's going to be fine, you know?" Marinette said. "She's going to wake up soon, and then after I apologize for making her run off the way she did we're going to give her some food and ask what happened. Then we'll start working even harder to get you guys home before anything else can happen."

"Yeah?"

"Yes," Marinette stated with determination. She smiled at him and moved away from Emma's hair to give him a hug. He gladly accepted it. Sure, it may not be exactly like getting a comforting hug from his mom, but it was a comforting hug, and Marinette was technically his mom, so maybe it was exactly like that?

 _Gosh this is so confusing,_ he thought.

* * *

Adrien returned after about half an hour. He slid into the room from the balcony without much of a sound, and was greeted by the sight of Marinette and Hugo sitting side by side watching over Emma.

She looked much better than when he had left. She didn't look as pale as she had before and the cut was clean of any blood and dirt that had been there before. It also looked like Marinette had brushed out her hair for her, and the fact that her breathing was a lot stronger suggested that she'd wake up soon. Adrien sighed in relief. He tossed the cheese he had brought to where he knew the kwamis liked to sleep, and the excited squeal he heard meant Plagg had found it.

"Hey," he whispered to Marinette and Hugo and he went to sit by Emma, too. There was a lot to be said between them, especially Marinette and Adrien, but they were all enjoying the peacefulness of the evening after the long stressful day they had been through.

That was until it was interrupted by groaning.

"Ugh, I have got the worst headache"

Everyone perked up at the sound of Emma's voice. Adrien was the closest to her, and the first person she saw when she opened her bleary eyes. She couldn't really tell where she was or whom she was looking at, but she would recognize that blonde hair anywhere.

"Hey, Dad. Did it work? Are we back home?"

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, so there just a few things:**

 **1\. Yes, there does appear to be some continuity issues, but if they're still there at the end of the story, I'll apologize then. I kind of have a plan about what I'm doing with the timelines, so please just bear with me until the story is over.**

 **2\. This story is close to being wrapped up. I have about 4 more chapters planned for after this one, and compared to earlier chapters they're probably going to be pretty short. I'd really like to finish this story before finals start at school, so you might get an update every day this week so I can have this finished by the end of spring break.**

 **3\. Can you reply to comments on here? If you can, I haven't figured it out yet, so I'd like to address a few: I didn't even know about the video game thing someone asked if the title was referencing; it's just a play on the popular saying "only time will tell." Yes, I am aware that I'm probably misusing the line breaks.** **I already addressed the continuity question, so I guess I'll just thank you all again so much for reading this, and I hope the ending doesn't seem too rushed even though I'm trying to write a chapter per day!**

 **Keep your eye out this week for updates!**


	12. We Need to Talk

**A/N: Here's the newest chapter (Yes, 2 updates in 2 days)!**

* * *

Marinette thought she had retained her composure surprisingly well throughout this whole situation. She didn't panic when she found a future Ladybug and Chat Noir, she didn't panic when she found out they were her children, and she didn't panic when she realized Adrien was Chat Noir.

No, she had been perfectly level-headed. The poster girl for calm acceptance. Until now, that is.

Now, she felt like she was about to start hyperventilating. She didn't think much of Emma's comment, she had after all been beaten up and unconscious for who knows how long, until she felt Hugo tense up next to her and whisper a soft "oh no."

That was all the confirmation she needed.

At this point she wasn't really aware of anything that was going on around her. Her thoughts were racing at a million miles an hour, and it could've been seconds or hours until she was snapped back into reality by _laughter._

"That's the reaction I was waiting for," future Plagg cackled. He was floating right in front of her face again, clutching his stomach and roaring with laughter. Marinette realized she was on the floor.

 _Did I fall off the bed?_

She looked up to where Hugo was still sitting. He was still tense and looked like he was struggling not to look at her. Across the bed, Emma was mumbling something about needing a shower and Adrien was shooting Marinette a confused look.

 _Oh my goodness he has no idea why I am freaking out and he probably thinks I'm crazy but Emma just called him Dad and oh my gosh…_

By the pain in her chest, Marinette realized she hadn't breathed for at least a few seconds. She gasped in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and counted to ten to try and compose herself before she attempted to speak again.

 _Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix._

She took one last deep breath and opened her eyes.

"A-adrien, remember how we were going to t-talk? W-well now that Emma is awake I-I think we should do that. Talk. Let Hugo talk to her. And you talk to me. Outside. On the balcony." She took another relaxing breath before she added, "Please."

Adrien still had no idea what was going on. He figured Marinette had heard what Emma had said, but did that really warrant that reaction? Sure it was a bit weird, but wasn't this whole situation? They were finally able to hold a conversation and suddenly she had reverted back to stuttering.

 _Is this how it's going to be from now on? Is she going to stutter when we're transformed now, too? I really hope not…_

"Sure," he finally replied. "Yeah, let's go talk. Um, Hugo, if Emma feels up to it in a minute, maybe ask her what happened?"

Hugo still wasn't looking in Marinette's direction, but he focused his eyes on Emma and nodded.

Adrien motioned for Marinette to lead the way on to the balcony, and he followed closely behind. She walked over to the lights she had plugged in the other night, and turned them on so they could actually see each other. Neither had night vision right now.

Sitting on the lounge chair, Adrien motioned for her to join him, but she stayed standing across from him. She was just staring at him. He stared back.

The silence quickly became awkward for two people who were supposed to be talking things out, and Adrien decided to speak first.

"So…You're Ladybug?"

She stopped staring at him and shifted her eyes to look unfocused at the horizon.

"Pretty disappointing, huh? That brave, composed Ladybug turned out to be some klutz like me."

Marinette looked so sad as she spoke, like she actually believed what she was saying. Adrien couldn't believe she could think so little of herself.

"What are you talking about?" Adrien said, and stood up to make her face him. He placed both of his hands on her shoulders and held her just far enough away to stare her down. "If anyone is disappointing here, it's me."

Now it was Marinette's turn to wear a mask of disbelief. "What? You are literally the m-most perfect person on the planet. Of course you're Chat Noir."

Adrien smiled at her compliment, even if he didn't believe it himself. "Now you know how I feel about you being Ladybug. Sure, Marinette doesn't always look where she's going and can seem a bit clumsy, but you're still smart, brave…" Adrien paused to consider what he'd say next. "…and beautiful."

He felt her stiffen slightly under his hands, but she relaxed once she looked at him and saw the sincerity written all over his face.

"Do you really think that?" she whispered.

"Yes," he replied immediately. "I always thought you hated me though, and I may have been just a little blinded by the Ladybug side of you to really notice you-you."

"You thought I hated you?"

"You could talk to everyone else at school, but every time I tried to talk to you, you stuttered and ran away. I thought you either hated me or were scared of me for some reason."

Marinette let out a small breathy laugh, "I never hated you, and I wasn't scared either, well not scared of you, exactly..."

Adrien sighed in relief. It was great to hear that from her, especially standing here as they were right now. Chat Noir already said he would love whomever was behind the Ladybug mask, and standing here with Marinette he knew that was true. Plagg was right, he did have a crush on Marinette, and he supposed he'd always had a little crush on her.

In fact, he loved her, both sides of her, and she needed to know that. Even if it meant rejection.

Marinette spoke first, however. "Do you know why Ladybug always turned down Chat Noir?"

Adrien shook his head. Was there really a reason other than she didn't feel the same way?

Marinette, with a little more bravery than she usually displayed while untransformed, moved her hand up to cup Adrien's cheek. He leaned into the touch.

"It wasn't because she didn't have feelings for him," she began. "It was because Marinette was hopelessly crushing on a boy from school."

Now it was Adrien's turn to stiffen. Of course, she had a crush on someone in their class. Was it Nathanael? Kim? Max? He didn't know. Now she was probably just trying to let him down easy. The disappointment must have been clear on his face, because she rolled her eyes before speaking again.

"Yeah, a real model-type. Blond hair, green eyes, seems kind of lonely sometimes. Kindest person I've ever met. He sits in front of me in class, but every time I try to talk to him I get really nervous. I stutter and then run away because I know I've embarrassed myself. It's kind of silly."

She was smiling at him now as the pieces clicked into place. The person that sat in from of her? But that was…him.

"Oh," he breathed. "Me?"

Marinette nodded. "You."

Adrien smiled now, "You know, I may have had a crush on Ladybug since I met her, but recently I felt like I was being torn in two because I also had a crush on the cute girl at school that was always willing to help someone. Even a lonely alley cat that felt like his father wouldn't miss him if he vanished."

They had moved a lot closer together during their conversation. Their chests were practically touching, with Marinette's hand still on Adrien's face, and his now on the small of her back. Sure they both had their insecurities, but maybe they could work through them together.

"Marinette," Adrien whispered. Their breaths were mixing together in their close proximity, and he could count every freckle on her face even in the low lighting. Her eyes were wide and almost glowing in the dim lighting. His eyes flicked from her eyes, to her freckles, and then to her lips. "Can I kiss you?"

She gave a closed mouth smile and nodded. "I thought you'd never ask."

She tilted her head and pulled him down to meet her. The kiss was soft and sweet, with over a year of pent up feelings behind it that the two had been too scared to vocalize until now. Both of their lips were slightly chapped. Neither minded. Being this close, Adrien thought Marinette smelled like _pain au chocolat_ , fitting for a baker's daughter. He almost laughed, but he didn't want to ruin the moment. Adrien's mind was starting to go blank just before she pulled back slightly to breathe and rested her forehead against his.

Marinette's cheeks were flushed and she had a bright smile on her face. She looked so happy.

"I love you," he blurted out. "I've been trying to say it since last Valentine's Day. I love you, and now I can truthfully say I love both sides equally."

"You're such a sap," She giggled. "But I love you, too."

She moved to wrap him in a bone crushing hug and buried her face in his chest.

They were both glad they got to have this talk, especially since this was the outcome. Two teenagers who were in love with the only other person in the world who could understand what they were going through. There was, however, Marinette's strange reaction earlier…

"Hey, Marinette..."

Her reply was muffled by his shirt, "Yeah?"

"What were you freaking out about earlier? When Emma woke up?"

He wasn't expecting her to jump back away from him. Marinette had reverted back to how she looked at school: pale, nervous, and not making eye contact.

"O-oh it was j-just what Emma said… It was…surprising."

 _So she did hear,_ he thought.

"Oh…Um, yeah. Kinda weird right? Apparently I wasn't supposed to find out, but I kind of figured it out. She looks exactly like my mom when she was young. Except my mom has green eyes."

Marinette nodded at his description. _That explains where the blonde hair came from_ , she thought. But, just because she knew the whole story, didn't mean Adrien needed to, right? But was it really a good to start out whatever this relationship was with more secrets?

"Yeah, her eyes are a really pretty shade of blue. When I first saw Ladybug in that alley I thought I was looking at myself, but I guess the similarities kind of stopped there."

Marinette could tell Adrien was listening to her story, but he didn't look like he was understanding what she was really trying to say.

He did, however, make a comment that seemed like they were going in the right direction.

"Yeah, and you, Emma, and Hugo kinda have the whole Asian thing going on with your eyes, just a little… Wait, I think that came out wrong…I-I meant-"

Marinette just giggled, "I know what you meant. Theirs' less than me, though. Right?" He nodded. She pretended to look like she was in deep thought. "You know, Hugo's hair is kind of interesting though. Isn't everyone in your family blond?"

"Yeah," Adrien replied. "His hair kind of looks like…your's."

She nodded. He was so close to getting all of her hints, but he wasn't quite there yet.

 _Come on, you stupid cat. This is awkward enough, don't make me say it._

Marinette tried a different tactic, "So which relative gave you your Miraculous, Adrien? I got mine from some of my grandmother's things. Apparently this job is a family tradition. Hugo obviously got his ring from you."

"Yeah, my mom left it for me, before she left." A sad look crossed his face before it was replaced with confusion. "Wait, does Ladybug's Miraculous work the same way?"

"Yeah, at least I think so. I haven't been able to trace them back to the beginning, but I haven't seen any contradicting evidence yet."

Adrien was so close to connecting the dots, but still nothing. His face was blank, and Marinette was getting tired of skirting it. She almost wished Plagg had come out here with them; at least he'd be blunt about it.

"I mean the previous Ladybug was either my aunt or my grandmother, then me, then I guess my daughter after that."

And just like that, the puzzle pieces fell into place for Adrien. Now it was his turn to panic.

Marinette watched from the other side of the balcony as his eyes, trained on the ground, widened. His face lost all color except for a raging blush on his cheeks, and he looked up to meet her eyes sheepishly.

"Oh," he said quietly. Then much louder, "OH."

"Surprise!" Marinette said weakly, with matching jazz hands. She tried to casually lean back on the railing to let him finish processing, but it came across looking more stiff and awkward. She let out a nervous laugh.

Adrien stood still, sorting through all the information that he had learned today.

 _Marinette is Ladybug. I love Ladybug. I love Marinette. Ladybug is a family tradition. Emma is Ladybug. Emma is my daughter. Emma is Marinette's daughter. Emma is_ our _daughter. Oh wow, I'm going to marry Marinette._

Both of them were coming to the same realization. Marinette had already imagined marrying Adrien, and finding out that's exactly what happens wasn't that bad of a thought. Adrien had also imagined during patrol one night that he would end up with Ladybug forever, and well, that was also true. They are classmates, partners, best friends, and they loved each other…it made sense. Besides, it was so far in the future, there was no need to stress about it now.

"What's the matter, Kitty?" Marinette smirked. "Cat got your tongue?"

Adrien snapped out of thought to laugh at her cat pun. It was easy to fall into his Chat Noir mannerisms when she bantered like that. He swaggered up to her and placed his arms on the railing on either side of her, trapping her.

"No, but this cat could have yours."

Marinette snorted at his flirting, but the bright blush on her cheeks gave her away. They would be fine, even if this whole reveal came about in a weird way.

The two of them were leaning in again when Hugo appeared in the hatchway. He noticed their current position, blushed, and looked away. _This is too weird,_ he thought.

"Um, sorry to interrupt… but Emma is awake. She's eating right now, but I thought you guys m-might want to hear what she has to say…"

Marinette, embarrassed, pushed Adrien off of her. "Right, yes. Glad to hear it. W-we'll come right down. Now. C'mon, Adrien."

"After you, My Lady."

* * *

 **A/N: I hope that talk was what you guys were expecting. I've never written anything like that before, so hopefully I did an okay job! And please, remember what I said yesterday about continuity. All your questions will (hopefully) be answered soon!**

 **I'm hoping to have another chapter written by tomorrow night, so keep your eye out!**


	13. Right Thoughts, Right Words, Righ Action

**A/N: short chapter, mainly filler. unedited (again). The title is once again an album reference, this time to Franz Ferdinand.**

* * *

Emma was sitting up on the bed, untransformed, and eating the now-cold food that Marinette had brought up earlier. Future Tikki was asleep with the other kwamis, and Marinette made a mental note to go find some extra cookies for her. Who knows how long she was holding that transformation.

As soon as she saw Marinette and Adrien re-enter the room, she started apologizing profusely. "I am so sorry! I'm sorry for transforming at the school, sorry for worrying you, sorry for spilling yet another secret. I'm sorry for ruining everything…"

"Whoa there, Emma." Marinette said. "I'm sorry. We might have come off a little harsher than we meant at the school. You haven't ruined anything. Don't worry, we'll figure all this out. Now, can you tell us what happened?"

Marinette went to sit next to the other girl on the bed, wrapping her arm around Emma's shoulders. Emma still looked a bit off, but the cut on her face didn't seem to be bothering her, so that was a good sign. She also gave a small smile after they accepted her apology.

Adrien and Hugo sat on the opposite end of the bed, and all of them made sure to keep their voices down. It was almost 11 PM by this point, and Marinette's parents were certainly asleep by now.

"Okay," Emma took a deep breath. "So after I talked to Hugo, I went to just do a little patrol around the city, looking for Le Sablier…and also trying to calm down for earlier. It seemed to be pretty quiet, so I sat down on one of the rooftops near la Rue de Richelieu. I was watching the tourists, hidden from sight of course, but then I saw a tourist that was dressed too strange to actually be a tourist, you know?"

Emma paused, giving them a second to catch up. Once all three of them were nodding, she continued. "He was wearing a long, light-blue—maybe grey?—cloak, with some kind of giant hood. I thought maybe it was just a theater costume, but I followed him anyways. He was heading towards the Louvre, not paying attention to anybody. But the weird thing was, no one could get within two meters of him. Not like they hit a brick wall, but rather they just went around him. At this point, I was sure he was an akuma."

"Was it Le Sablier?" Hugo asked.

"Patience. I'm getting there," Emma replied. "So, right as I was about to swing down, he jumped up on to the roof a little ways away. That's when I saw the picture in his hand. He was _looking_ for someone. It had to be Le Sablier, so of course, I did the first thing I could think of. I went after him."

"So the picture is the akuma?" Adrien asked. "If we all work together, we can just try to grab him without being hit by the time travel beam, right?"

"You're forgetting an important detail," Emma pointed to her face. "Apparently, time travel isn't the only thing this akuma has going for him."

"Continue the story," Marinette said.

Emma obliged. "I landed on the roof next to him, and when he swung around to face me I realized two things. One, he is really young. Maybe eight or nine. Two, he also has a giant scythe with him. I don't know how we missed that the first time. So that's what caused the cut. I got a little too close trying to grab the akuma; it was stupid to try and do it alone."

"You took a risk to try and get home," Marinette said, rubbing her back. "No one can blame you for that."

Emma nodded and leaned more into Marinette. They may be the same age at the moment, but her mom was still the same comforting presence she was back home.

"Oh, right. He also knows how to use the scythe, really well. After the cut came the whack to the back of the head. With the other end, obviously. I think you can figure out the rest."

"You're lucky he didn't send you back further in time," Hugo said. He sounded reprimanding, but there was relief on his face.

"Ah, brother dearest. That's the thing. You go back to meet your parents, so when he did hit me again, it didn't do anything."

"Do you think it's a specific point in time? What stopped it from sending you back to when they were like six?" Hugo asked.

"No idea."

"That could be important."

"Or it could just be a random one-time thing and that's why it didn't work again."

"Maybe it sends you back to when your parents meet? Or when they get together? That's vaguely where we are, right?"

"I don't know," Emma replied, glacing at Marinette and then Adrien, "I don't know what's changed in the timeline. Technically us being here is what got them together in the end."

Hugo gave an unconvinced hum.

"More importantly," Adrien said, interrupting them, "where did Le Sablier go?"

"Where else?" Emma shrugged. "The Catacombs. I think that's where he's made his home base."

"Great." Adrien replied, "I hate underground."

"Well if he's underground, that explains why we haven't seen him yet." Marinette stated. "And tomorrow, we're going to go get him."

"Do you have a plan?" Hugo asked.

"Not yet," Marinette replied. "But let's make one. We have some important things to remember, first, Adrien and I cannot get hit by the time travel beam under any circumstances. My parents didn't even meet in France, let alone Paris, so that would completely put me out of commission."

"My parents met in Milan," Adrien informed. "So I agree, I wouldn't be any help there."

"Alright, so maybe Emma and I should be the distraction, and you two can actually grab the akuma."

Marinette nodded. "Second, the first thing we should take out is the scythe, that way, no matter what, hopefully no one will receive any physical injuries."

"And hopefully we won't have to use our powers early on in the fight," Adrien added. "Once we're underground, it'll be hard to get away to recharge."

"Right," Emma said. "So the plan is distract, disarm, defeat, and don't get hit?"

"Basically." Marinette replied, "Hopefully with the four of us it will be an easy fight. Once the akuma is cleansed, you guys should be sent back home, and the news of another Ladybug and Chat Noir will be gone within a few days."

"Are you sure?" Emma asked. She still felt extremely guilty about the whole situation, even if her mistakes had caused her teenage parents to finally reveal themselves to each other and get together.

"Of course," Marinette reassured her. "Adrien and I can handle it. Right, Adrien?"

"Right. Apparently Marinette is much better at keeping Alya from the real truth than I ever would have thought."

"Guilty." Marinette confessed. "Remember the Pharaoh? When Alya found the textbook that Ladybug dropped? Not only did I manage to convince her that Ladybug was not in our grade, but I also convinced her that the current Ladybug is over 5000 years old. Well, I did that with the help of Tikki, of course."

"Impressive," Emma and Hugo chorused.

"So, is everyone good with the plan?" Adrien asked. Marinette and the twins nodded. "Well, then I guess I'll meet you back here tomorrow. Say, 4 PM? I have a photoshoot before that. Plus, I figure we're going to have to wait until after the Catacombs closed to avoid putting tourists at risk."

"Sounds great," Marinette told him.

"Plagg, transforme-moi." Adrien instructed. A bright green flash of light later, and Chat Noir was standing in front of them. "I don't know if I said this earlier, but I'm glad to see you're okay, Emma."

He stood up and walked over to where Emma and Marinette were sitting, giving Emma a one-armed hug and placing a kiss on top of Marinette's head. He fist-bumped Hugo as he made his way to the hatch.

"See you later, Kitty." Marinette called after him.

"À demain, Princess."

* * *

 **A/N: So the next chapter will probably not be up by tomorrow for 3 reasons: 1) I haven't started writing it yet 2) I've never been to Paris, so I need to do some research on the Catacombs, and 3) Akuma battles are _really hard_ to write**

 **(Also, I have a ton of assignments for school I really should have started by now...)**

 **And yes, expect at least one cat pun with the word "catacomb"**


	14. This is the Last Time

**A/N: You know when you plan on doing something in a certain amount of time, but then life gets in the way? That's what happened with this chapter.**

* * *

"Even the entrance is spooky," Hugo observed.

As promised, the group met at the entrance to the Catacombs at precisely the time they closed to the public. They stood on a rooftop overlooking the entrance, watching as the last remaining tourists filtered out of the small black building.

After a few minutes of making sure all the tours were in fact complete, they made their way inside before they got locked out for the evening.

Hiding within a small space just inside the structure, they heard the sound of a key turning a lock.

"We are effectively locked in," Emma stated.

"Is that supposed to be reassuring?" Adrien complained. "Because it's actually quite the opposite."

The two Chat Noirs led the way because their night vision gave them an advantage in the poorly-lit space. Marinette had brought a torch, which would have helped immensely, if she wasn't too worried about losing the element of surprise by turning it on.

"Have I ever mentioned how much I hate this place?" Adrien whined. "It's creepy."

"Quit being such a scaredy cat," Marinette hissed back. "The quicker we find Le Sablier, the quicker we can get out of here."

"There are like six million people's remains here," Adrien tried to counter. Marinette glared at him again. "But I guess you're right, My Lady. Let's get this over with before it becomes six million and four."

They made their way down the cramped tunnel and stopped when they saw the entrance to the ossuary.

"Arrête!" Emma read, "C'est ici l'empire de la mort."

"Comforting," Adrien deadpanned.

"Wow, kitty you must be quite scared." Marinette teased as she led them through the archway, "You haven't made a single pun yet."

"I'm a little more worried about keeping the 'Cat' out of the 'Catacombs.' Sue me."

Their banter diminished as the four of them made their way further. Adrien loosened up as they continued, but the nature of the mission didn't allow him to be as vocal as he would have liked.

"Are you sure he's in here, Emma?" Hugo finally asked after about half an hour of searching. "There's tons of underground spaces in Paris, how do you know this is it?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure this is where he should be," she sighed. "He certainly looked the part with the cloak and the scythe, but I guess I could've been wrong. I did get knocked out pretty bad."

"Come on, we've barely started!" Marinette exclaimed. "I've got a feeling he's here, call it luck if you will…" She trailed off towards the end as something a little farther caught her eye.

"Call it luck, or just look at the glow coming from down there. What could that be at this time of day?"

She smirked as she led her way towards the light source. She held on to Adrien's gloved hand, not to comfort either one of them, but so he could make sure she didn't walk straight into a wall in the darkness.

As they got closer to the glow, it became brighter, lighting up even more of the space. It was blue, so most likely not a fire, but it was still around the corner from where they were. Adrien could hear the sounds of someone moving, and Marinette picked up the distinct sound of fabric dragging on the floor.

Marinette motioned for the group to stop just a few meters from the turn.

"Okay," Marinette whispered. "I'm going to look around the corner for a second, just in case it isn't Le Sablier. Wait for me to come back before you move."

"And if it is him?" Hugo asked.

"If it is him, I want you and Emma to distract him long enough for Adrien and me to sneak behind him without being seen. Oh, and try to take the scythe away from him. Where does the time travel beam come from again?"

"I think it just comes from his hand," Emma informed. "He was wearing gloves last time, so it could be those…"

"Okay," Marinette nodded. "Then Adrien and I will just have to make sure we don't get near him hands. No matter what. Got that, _chaton_?"

"Hmm?" Adrien snapped back into what was going on. In truth, he had heard most of what she'd said, sneak behind, don't get hit, blah blah blah, but after a few moments he got distracted by her. It still was strange to him to know that the Ladybug standing in front of him giving all these orders so confidently was actually the girl who couldn't get two words out around him until a few days ago. Sure he may know now why she had trouble speaking to him before, but he was still adjusting to this whole new (yet entirely familiar) side of her. She was fascinating.

…And apparently angry that he hadn't been paying attention. "Just don't get hit," she whispered. With one last malice-free glare in his direction, she crept forward and looked around the corner.

Adjusting to the brightness now that the light source was in full view, Ladybug did a full survey of the space in front of her. It was much more open that the other tunnels they had been in, and slightly wider and more rounded. That was good, more space to fight and more space for her and Adrien to sneak around behind.

The next thing she took note of was the light source. It was just a few LED lanterns lined up near the far wall. Also good. They should be out of the way enough for them to battle the akuma without being plunged into complete darkness.

Finally she noticed the figure on the floor. Emma had been right, it was just a small boy, definitely a few years younger than they were, clutching what must be the akumatized picture.

It was a heartbreaking sight.

He was bunched up in his cloak, with the scythe next to him, clutching the picture with both hands, all alone in the darkness. Marinette noticed his shoulders were shaking too.

 _Oh god, he's crying._ Marinette thought, _how could someone put a poor little kid through this?_

Turning back away from the scene in front of her, she went back to where the other three were waiting for her.

"So?" Hugo asked. "What are we looking at?"

"A sad little boy who just wants to meet his parents," Marinette replied. "I have never hated Hawkmoth as much as I do now. He is distracted though, so let's get this over with."

Hugo went first, as the primary distraction. Usually it would have been Adrien who volunteered for such a task, but they couldn't run the risk of him getting struck by the time travel beam. Hugo was good at acting the part, though. He strutted right into the akuma's hideout with a Chat Noir flair Marinette had doubted he even possessed.

Of course, Le Sablier noticed right away. He jumped up faster than Hugo had thought possible and began swinging his scythe at him.

"Can't we just talk about this?" Emma asked as she entered right behind Hugo, yo-yo swinging.

"NO!" The kid shouted before diverting his attention away from Hugo and towards Emma.

His line of sight had been completely pulled away from the entrance as he tried to decide whether to go after Emma or Hugo. The danced around his scythe with expertise, and Marinette took that to mean her and Adrien could sneak in now.

They were about halfway to the other end of the room, Adrien about two meters behind Marinette, when Le Sablier spotted him. Luckily, he didn't seem to notice Marinette.

"There's two?!" the akuma cried in outrage.

Adrien was stuck. He couldn't move towards Marinette, or she might get caught too. He couldn't really move back towards the tunnel, because Le Sablier was closer and would not doubt catch him before he got there.

When Le Sablier raised his hand, the only thing on Adrien's mind was hope that they could catch the akuma and bring him back before he got too lost in Milan.

He saw the flash of light from the time travel beam, but it never hit him. An impact came though, and once again Adrien found himself being tackled by a blur of red.

The beam must've hit her instead, Adrien realized, and he was just hoping Marinette hadn't been dumb enough to take a hit for him when she was much more needed here. Adrien kept his eyes closed and waited for the weight on top of him to fade into the past, but it never did.

He carefully opened one eye to see Emma grinning at him.

"Thank goodness you're okay," she sighed.

"Have you ever considered playing rugby?" he asked her. "You've got a wicked tackle technique."

She laughed as she pulled him back up to his feet. Le Sablier, on the other hand, was not as amused.

"Can't you guys just leave me alone?!" He raised his scythe above his head to strike them, but a very familiar red and black yo-yo wrapped around it and yanked it away before he got the chance.

Marinette broke the scythe in half, rendering it useless, and then summoned her Lucky Charm. It was a skateboard.

"What the heck?" she asked. But as she looked around, a plan formed in her head. Le Sablier raised his hand to shoot Marinette with the time travel beam, but as he took a step towards her, she pushed the skateboard towards him. It managed to slide right under where his foot was about to hit, tripping him and sending the time travel beam up towards the ceiling.

"Now, Hugo!" Marinette yelled.

Hugo lunged forward and managed to rip the cloak off Le Sablier, the picture coming with it. He scooped it up and ripped it in half, the black butterfly fluttering out.

" _Tu_ _as assez fait de mal comme ça, petit akuma._ _Je te libère du mal!"_

Marinette caught the akuma in her yo-yo and cleansed it.

"Bye bye, _petit_ _papillon_." She waved as the now white creature flew away.

The dark magic left the victim, leaving a very confused boy sitting there. He took in the sight of the four superheroes standing around him in the dark, skeleton lined hallway before glancing down at the now-repaired picture in his hand. Marinette thought he was taking the whole thing very well.

"I'm adopted," he stated miserably to the photo. Marinette walked over and put a hand on his shoulder.

"What's your name?"

He looked at her skeptically, but replied nonetheless. "Jamie."

"Do you love the family you live with now?" She asked.

He nodded.

"And do they love you?"

He nodded again.

"Then everything will be fine, Jamie. All you need is a loving family." She glanced back at her future kids and smiled.

The boy nodded again and wiped his tears away. "I probably should've let them explain before I just ran away like that. They're probably really worried about me. I'm sorry, Ladybug."

"That's okay," Marinette said. "We'll get you home soon enough. I'm sure they'll understand. Now, I need you to go stand over there while I talk to the other Ladybug and Chat Noir. Don't turn around until I say so, okay?"

He did as he was told, leaving Marinette alone with Adrien, Hugo, and Emma. She had the skateboard clutched in her hands like her life depended on it.

"I need to talk to Tikki," Marinette said. "I would detransform myself, but then the Lucky Charm might disappear."

Emma nodded, understanding what Marinette meant, and detransformed. They only had five minutes now, so they had to make this quick.

Tikki fluttered up to Marinette. "What is it?"

"Tikki, what's going to happen when I use the Miraculous Cure?"

The kwami seemed to ponder that for a moment. Whether she was trying to think back to when she was present here in the past or just trying to decide based on the nature of Ladybug's powers, Marinette didn't know. After a few glances around, Tikki spoke.

"Well, Emma, Hugo, and the former akuma victim will most certainly go back to their own time periods. Emma and Hugo will remember everything that happened, but the boy will have no memory of the past or of Ladybug and Chat Noir's civilian names. He may still remember what you said to him, however."

"What about me and Adrien?"

"You two will remember most of what happened, but will forget some details."

"Will we still remember that our identities were revealed?" Adrien asked. He looked extremely anxious at the thought of possibly going back to square one.

"Of course." Tikki replied, "You will remember that a Ladybug and Chat Noir from the future got trapped in the past and that you helped them. However, the magic is not intended to give hints to the future, so you will forget their names, faces, and who they are related to. The same will be true of everyone who interacted with them during their stay here. They will just simply forget they ever existed."

"I guess that makes sense," Marinette sighed. "Okay, well, I guess you better transform back before I send you. Thank you, Tikki."

"Tikki, spots on!"

Marinette began to tear up a little. While she knew that forgetting what her future held for her would be for the best, she wasn't looking forward to forgetting the time she spent with the twins during the past weeks. Emma looked like she wasn't ready to go, either. She came over and smothered Marinette in a hug.

"See you in twenty-five years, Marinette."

"You might want to call me Mom at that time though," Marinette giggled, wavering with unshed tears. "Respect your elders and all that."

Emma laughed too, and moved on to hug Adrien.

"Don't worry," she said, "You'll get taller."

He laughed and hugged her back. "I'll also make sure to remember you need to play rugby to utilize that amazing tackle."

"Mom would never allow it," Emma smirked, "Also, make sure you remember that I destroyed you in our fencing match. Even if you don't, I will and I will hold it against you."

While the two of them were laughing and exchanging jokes, Marinette said goodbye to Hugo.

"I hope future me appreciates you two as much as I do now," she said while hugging him. He just smiled and nodded.

"I hope past you will remember to tell Dad to keep the books he has. I saw his room, and I am so jealous of the library."

Marinette laughed, remembering the ridiculous space for herself. "You're a lot like him, Hugo. I can already see it…" She took a step back, "Although, you are a lot taller."

"Grandpa says I take after him on that," Hugo laughed.

"Oh, definitely." Marinette replied. She gave him one last hug and whispered, "Make sure you keep an eye out for your sister. Ladybug needs Chat Noir, and Emma needs impulse control."

Hugo gave her a smile (that looked very much like her own) and said, "Don't worry about that. I'll make sure nothing happens to either of us."

"Oh! And tell your girlfriend I said hi," Marinette added suddenly.

"Wh-what?" Hugo spluttered, "What girlfriend?"

"I may or may not have seen that letter you accidentally left on the chaise, Casanova. I hope you remember it for Isabelle. That was her name, right?"

Hugo sighed, even in the past his Mom was teasing him about the one detail he thought he had managed to leave out about himself. "Yeah, her name is Isabelle."

"Hugo has a girlfriend?" Adrien asked, joining the conversation.

"Yep," Emma said. "You should hear how he goes on and on about her—"

"Don't you think it's about time we got home? Marinette is down to two spots." Hugo said, cutting her off. There was a faint blush covering his cheeks as he spoke.

"Yes, I suppose it is," Emma sighed.

"You can come back over here, now." Marinette called to Jamie. He walked over and stood just off the side from Emma and Hugo.

"You still have Cataclysm to get us out of here, right?" She checked with Adrien before sending the other three home.

"Of course, LB."

"Okay, good. This isn't exactly where I wanted to have our first date." She was smirking in full Ladybug playfulness but the deep blush adorning her face was all Marinette.

 _I could get used to this,_ Adrien thought.

"Ready?" Marinette asked the other three. All the time travelers nodded. Adrien came over and held her hand, while she prepared to throw the skateboard with the other.

She tossed it into the air, and yelled her signature phrase:

"Miraculous Ladybug!"

* * *

 **A/N: All that's left now is the epilogue. I think I could've stretched the akuma battle out longer, but its not really fair when it's four against one, so that just didn't make sense to me. Also, once again this was unedited, so please ignore any spelling or grammar mistakes that I'm sure I made. Thanks for reading!**


	15. Epilogue: In Your Own Time

**A/N: Sorry again for the late update, finals are completely destroying me.**

* * *

When the red glow of the Miraculous Cure faded away, Ladybug, Chat Noir, and the now un-akumatized Jamie found themselves outside an apartment complex in the 13th arrondissement of Paris.

"This is my apartment complex!" Jamie yelled in surprise. That was a good sign. If they were back where he had been akumatized, there was a good chance they were back in their own time, too.

"Well," Hugo said, "You should probably get going then, Jamie. Your family is probably worried sick about you. Who knows how long we've actually been gone."

Jamie looked at the ground, "Sorry for all the trouble I caused."

"It wasn't you," Emma said. She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and he actually looked up to meet her gaze. "It was Hawkmoth. He's the only monster around here. You were just the victim, and if you ever need anything again, just keep an eye out. Chat Noir and I are always around to help."

"Thank you, Ladybug." He gave them both a quick hug before running into the apartment complex. Once he disappeared completely from view, Hugo turned to Emma.

"Ready to go see Mom and Dad?"

"It's going to be so weird," Emma sighed. "They're old again."

"I'm telling Mom you said that," Hugo smirked as he pole-vaulted in the direction of their home.

"Hugo Thomas Dupain-Cheng don't you dare!" Emma yelled after him as she followed closely behind. Thank goodness it was late and no one was around, or she would've just given away his secret identity.

They came to a stop in an alley right beside their house. It was in a tall building above a small boutique, which their mother used to as her design studio where she made and displayed her costumes. The closest theater was only a block away, and the school with within walking distance. The perfect home for their little family.

Still disguised as Ladybug and Chat Noir, Hugo and Emma stared up at the brick façade above the shop.

"So," Emma started. "Do we go through the shop, the back door, or up to the roof?"

"Well, it is really late, so Mom and Dad might not appreciate us just marching up through the front door, or the back door for that matter. But then again, they might not appreciate us sneaking in and just going to bed like nothing happened."

"Back door it is then." She walked around to the back of the house and dropped her transformation, waiting for Hugo to do the same. He obliged. With one final glance at each other, Emma plucked the key out from under the mat and unlocked the entrance that led directly to their living space. Once it was open, she put the key back under the mat.

They made their way into the stairwell, locking the door behind them again, and up the stairs. Emma opened the main door as quietly as she could. They didn't want to go out of their way to wake their parents up if they didn't have to.

To both of their surprise, the lights were all on.

"How did we not notice that when we were outside?" Hugo hissed. They crept further into the house, and paused when they saw the two people sitting on the couch.

Plagg flew off Hugo's shoulder before either had a chance to say anything. "ADRIEN, I'm home! Did you buy me some more Camembert?"

Tikki rolled her eyes, but followed the black cat kwami to the kitchen.

Their parents' heads snapped in their direction, and before either could blink, Marinette had jumped up off the couch and enveloped them in a hug.

"Uh, hey, Mom. Hi, Dad."

"About time you two got back! Emma Adele what did you do this time?"

"Why do you just assume it was me?"

"She called you old, Mom."

"Hugo!" Emma growled as their mother released them from her iron grip.

Adrien, always the moderator in the family, knew he needed to change the subject before Marinette started a rant on how she is not old, she simply "has experience." He got up off the couch and put his arm around his wife (after quickly hugging their children as well). He motioned back towards the couch that he and Marinette had just vacated, indicating that they should all sit down.

The four of them sat on the couch and the loveseat, facing each other.

"Glad to see you two are home safe," Adrien smiled.

"Sorry if we worried you guys," Emma started. "It's a really long story, but I'd be happy to tell you." She glanced at the calendar. Time had fully progressed, and they had been gone for over a week.

"That's okay, sweetheart. We weren't worried," Adrien said.

"You weren't?" Emma asked, her voice almost sounded hurt. Why weren't they worried about their safety? They had been gone for so long, and their parents just didn't care?

"What your socially awkward father means," Marinette said, rolling her eyes, "was that we were worried at first, but then we remembered a particular incident from when we were kids, and we knew you were in good hands."

"Wait," Hugo interrupted. "You remember meeting us in the past?"

"We didn't at first," Marinette explained. "I think I spent the first night out on the balcony, waiting for you two to come back. But then, your father reminded me of all the shenanigans _we_ got up to as Ladybug and Chat Noir, and while we were trying to calm ourselves by talking about old battles, we remembered a particular one that involved a blonde Ladybug and a dark-haired Chat Noir from the future. It all just kind of clicked after that. Apparently everything we forgot under the Miraculous Cure came back after that."

Emma and Hugo nodded. It made complete sense (well as much sense as can be made in the mixed up world of magical teenage superheroes).

"So you remember me kicking your butt?" Emma grinned at her father.

"I remember letting you win," Adrien shot back.

"As if! I beat you fair and square! Let's go, old man! I'll beat you again right here, right now!"

Adrien laughed and leant into Marinette. He whispered in her ear, "She is definitely your daughter."

Marinette rolled her eyes and nudged him back the other way. "Anyways, your school bags are on the table. Isabelle brought them back a few days ago, and she seemed worried-"

Marinette didn't even finish her sentence before Hugo jumped up and over the couch to fish his phone out of the bag. He had 10 texts and 5 missed calls from Isabelle, 2 texts from Emma's best friend, Charles, and another missed call from his parents. He quickly tossed Emma her phone so she could call Charles before dialing Isabelle. Hopefully she was still awake.

" _Allô?_ Hugo? Oh my gosh, where have you been! I've been so worried, and I went to your house and your parents didn't know where you were either, and they swore to me that you were fine but I was SO worried." She took a breath to calm her nerves and stop rambling. "Hugo, what happened?"

Hugo had made up his mind during their trip to the past over what he would tell her. And, since Marinette read his letter and didn't say anything about his idea, she must've thought it would be okay.

"I know, Isabelle. I'm so so so sorry for disappearing like that. I'll tell you everything tomorrow. Can you meet me in the park at noon?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," came her reply from the other end.

Hugo had a dumb grin on his face. "You are amazing, and I promise I'm okay. I'll see you tomorrow."

"I love you, Hugo."

Hugo glanced back at his parents and sister, embarrassed. Not because he was embarrassed to say it, but because the three of them were relentless with their teasing and he had already had a small dose of it earlier. Luckily, they seemed wrapped up in their own conversations, so he replied, "I love you too, Isa. I'll explain everything tomorrow."

After a brief noise of affirmation from Isabelle, they hung up. Hugo placed his phone on the kitchen counter, and with a grin still plastered to his face, went back to the couch.

"What did Isabelle say?" his mother asked.

"Just that she was worried. I'm going to meet her in the park tomorrow and explain everything."

"I think that's a good idea," his father nodded. "You should be honest with her, especially as these things are going to keep getting more difficult to defeat. You don't want her to worry."

"Just make sure she doesn't tell anyone," Emma chimed in. "I don't think she would, but it's probably a good idea to make sure."

Hugo turned toward his sister, surprised by her uncharacteristically wise advice. "Are you going to tell Charles that you're Ladybug?"

"God, no." Emma laughed. "I love him, he's my best friend, but he's too much of a talker. Besides, it's not like I have to worry about him wondering where I am all the time. When I called him, he thought I was sick and had just lost my charger again. No need to tell him otherwise."

Hugo nodded. It was probably best if the number of people that knew about their secret identities stayed low. Isabelle would be the first person outside the family to know about Emma and Hugo.

"Well kiddos, as fun as this has been-and I am extremely glad to have you two home-but it's late, and I have to work tomorrow." Their mother stood up and kissed them both on the head on her way past. "Goodnight."

Adrien stood up soon after his wife had made her way to the first floor bedroom. "I'm going to bed, too," he told them. "I suggest you two do the same. I'm making crêpes tomorrow morning for breakfast."

"With fresh strawberries?" Emma asked, her eyes lit up with excitement.

Adrien nodded, and gave a final wave as he turned away.

"Hey dad," Hugo called before he disappeared down the hallway. Adrien turned back around with a questioning hum.

"I just wanted to say thank you, for everything."

"I'm glad you remembered."

"I'm glad you did, too."

"Goodnight, kids."

"Goodnight, Dad."

* * *

Fifteen year-old Adrien and Marinette didn't struggle with the memory loss side-effects of the Miraculous Cure, and it didn't seem like anyone else had either.

They were too excited to finally be with the person they had been pining after for so long to really pay attention, anyway. Sure, they still had a lot to learn about each other. It probably wouldn't be easy. But, two days after the akuma was cleansed, everything seemed to be going smoothly.

Occasionally Marinette would slip up and stutter around Adrien before she remembered what a huge dork he actually was.

Adrien had forgotten on Sunday that they knew each other's identities, if only for a brief moment, when he made up a story to get away for an akuma attack. Marinette had just rolled her eyes and dragged him into the nearest alleyway with her to transform, and winked at him before she swung away on her yo-yo.

They decided not to let anyone know that Ladybug and Chat Noir were together, at least for a little while.

The only problem? They had forgotten to mention to anyone that Marinette and Adrien were together.

The scene on Monday morning was something no one would soon forget.

When Adrien and Marinette walked into the classroom hand-in-hand and smiling at each other, everyone was a bit taken aback.

(That was putting it lightly.)

Alya's eyes got so huge, Marinette worried they were going to pop out of her head.

Nino let out a whistle and high-fived Adrien.

Money was exchanged between Alix and Kim. Kim then handed five euros over to Max, who mentioned something about this being one month, two weeks, five days, 13 hours, and fifteen minutes sooner than he had predicted

Nathanael sighed, but smiled at the two before going back to his drawing.

But the most unforgettable reaction of all was from Chloé.

"WHAT IS SHE DOING WITH HIM?" Chloé snarled before walking up and forcibly separating the two. Marinette fell on the floor from the force, and Adrien ended up trapped between the wall and Chloé.

"She's just the daughter of a baker, what's so special about that? And she can't even talk to him! Always stuttering and tripping, she's a fool! Is she blackmailing you, Adrikins? I can call my daddy and get her sent to jail if that's the case." Chloé flipped her ponytail over her shoulder and latched onto Adrien's arm.

Marinette glared at her, ready to not only defend herself, but also Adrien.

Adrien, however, beat her to it.

"Chloé please get off of me," Adrien said, his voice sounded like he was attempting to control himself because he was always the gentleman. His eyes betrayed how mad he actually was, and they flashed with a dangerous look usually reserved for akumas.

Marinette managed to stand up, pull Chloé off her boyfriend, and whisper "down, kitty" at a volume no one else could hear.

"Adrien, I don't know what kind of information she has on you, but just give a signal and I'll have her taken away before she can even blink." Chloé crossed her arms and glared at Marinette.

"You want a sign?" Adrien snarled, "I'll give you a sign."

Just like that, he grabbed Marinette by the waist and crashed his lips onto hers. She squeaked, but responded with just as much enthusiasm.

Neither seemed to care when they had started practically making out in front of the entire class.

They didn't even notice when Chloé screeched and stormed out of the classroom.

Or when Alya started filming. "For their wedding," she said.

They did, however, notice when the teacher walked in the room.

"MISS DUPAIN-CHENG, MISTER AGRESTE!" She exclaimed, and the two broke apart. Finally remembering where they were, they sat down in their seats with crimson cheeks and matching smiles.

"Well, now that you two are finished," Ms. Bustier started. "We can get on with class." She turned her attention to the board briefly, before turning back to the class.

"Oh, and someone please tell Ms. Mendeleiev that she owes me ten euros."

* * *

Hugo saw Isabelle first.

She was standing by the statue of Ladybug and Chat Noir-of his parents-wearing simple jean shorts and a t-shirt. She had gotten a haircut in the week he was gone, her brown hair now only reaching her shoulders as she examined the statue in front of her.

 _Ironic,_ Hugo thought. _She chose to wait by that statue on today of all days._

Hugo snuck up behind her and covered her eyes. "Guess who," he whispered in her ear.

She laughed and spun around. "Hugo!"

Isabelle enveloped him in a hug. "I am so glad you're back. I know it was only a week, but I was so worried that something happened. Your parents weren't exactly helpful when I stopped by."

Hugo grinned as she pulled back away from his chest, but kept hugging him. "I know," he told her. "That's part of what I wanted to talk to you about. Can we go sit down?"

Isabelle nodded, and he led her over to the bench. He sat down with her for a second, but right before he started talking, his nerves switched into overdrive, and he figured the only way he was going to be able to say all that he wanted to was to pace in front of her.

"So, to start off, I guess I can tell you where I was this past week." Hugo continued pacing. "I was in the past."

"The past?" Isabelle echoed.

"Twenty-five years in the past, to be precise."

"How?"

"You know the villains that show up sometimes? They're called akuma. A week ago Emma and I came across one with the power to time travel, and we got hit with a ray that sent us back to the past."

Isabelle had stood up by this point, and she grabbed Hugo by the wrist to get him to stop pacing. "Oh my gosh, how on earth did you get back? Where did you stay while you were in the past?"

Hugo sighed, this was taking a lot more nerve than he thought it would.

"Our mom found us."

"Your mom?"

"She was fifteen at that time. She let us stay with her at our grandparents' house, and her and my dad helped us get back here."

"How did they know what to do?"

"You know that statue over there?" Hugo pointed to where she had been standing earlier.

"The one of Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

"The one of my parents."

"There's not a statue of your parents over—" She paused as realization spread over her features. Hugo watched as her brown eyes grew in surprise as she pieced it all together. "Your parents are Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

"My parents _were_ Ladybug and Chat Noir. They retired a while ago, after they defeated the last Hawkmoth."

"Who?"

"The man responsible for all the akumas. He was locked away a long time ago. No one has mentioned him in over fifteen years."

"Then how are the akuma still around?" Isabelle asked.

"The previous Hawkmoth was my grandfather, but this new one is someone else. No one knows who it is, but the akuma are going to become more dangerous as time goes on."

"Wait," she placed her finger on his lips. "Your grandfather? But I thought the villain was some fashion designer?"

"He was. His name is Gabriel Agreste. My dad took my mom's last name when they got married, that's why it's different."

"That must have been so terrible for him! His own dad? I hope the new Chat Noir isn't going through the same thing." Isabelle cried.

"I seriously doubt it," Hugo reassured her. He knew for a fact that his father was not Hawkmoth and never would be.

The two sat in silence for a while after that. Hugo wanted to give her a second to process all the information he had given her before he told her the rest. Plus, he wasn't exactly sure how to continue.

"So if your parents were Ladybug and Chat Noir, does that mean you know who the current Ladybug and Chat Noir are?"

Hugo wanted to get down on his knees and thank every deity he could think of for getting her to ask a direct question like that. It made it a lot easier to continue from that jumping off point.

"Yes."

"Who? I mean I understand if you can't tell me because of secret identities and all that..."

"No it's okay," Hugo said. He grabbed her hands and took another deep breath. "The duty of Ladybug is a huge responsibility, so it remains tradition in a single family that goes back over five thousand years. The original Ladybug passed the role over to one of her family members, either a child or a niece or nephew, and the tradition continued all the way to the present, and will continue in the future."

"So if your mom was Ladybug, does that mean…" Isabelle said, trailing off at the end as she looked at him expectantly.

"Emma is the new Ladybug," he confirmed. "And either one of her children or one of mine will be the next Ladybug in the future."

All she could reply was, "Wow."

The more Isabelle thought about it, the more it made sense. Emma was certainly brave enough, and combined with her athleticism and problem solving skills, she was a perfect fit. Maybe that's why the tradition had to stay in their family. They were literally born to fit the job.

There was one more question on her mind, however….

"How does the tradition of Chat Noir work, then?"

 _Now's the time,_ Hugo thought. Isabelle, a girl he had known since they were in diapers, was finally going to know his biggest secret. His girlfriend would know his biggest secret. He wouldn't have to keep trying to come up with excuses for all the times he had to disappear, he wouldn't have to leave her in the dark if something ever happened to him again, and his parents had reassured him that her knowing would not put her in any danger.

"It works the exact same way," he said, looking up to catch the look in her eyes. "I'm Chat Noir."

* * *

 **A/N: And that's it! I hope you all enjoyed this story. This was really fun to write, but I'm glad it's over (so I can stop procrastinating).**

 **Since I've caught up on all the episodes now, I can officially say that this is 100% canon divergence with regards to the lore of the Miraculous.**

 **Little explanations:**

 **Hugo's middle name is Marinette's father's name, and I decided that Emma needed Adrien's mom's name, but since we don't know what that is, I went with Adele, because the painting of her is based on Gustav Klimt's** ** _Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer_** **.**

 **The idea to include Isabelle was a last second decision I made while writing the last chapter, but it was fun to include here.**

 **The title is another Keane song, from the album _Strangeland._**


End file.
